


A Year Like This (Passes So Strangely)

by AyraBelle



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Keith and Shiro are Siblings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-26 06:10:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 27,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12550920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyraBelle/pseuds/AyraBelle
Summary: Pidge thinks her RA is insane. Keith is inclined to agree.Lance honestly didn’t think that becoming a freshman RA would drop a cute senior in his life but hey – he’s not about to complain.(Banner by PookElucy)





	1. Keith

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Klance Big Bang 2017](https://klancebb2017.tumblr.com/).  
> Featuring arts by the amazing [Aetherlogic](http://aetherlogic.tumblr.com/) and [PookElucy](http://pookelucy.tumblr.com/)! Go to their tumblrs and give them lots of love! They were awesome to work with and chat with :D

Keith absolutely hated this building. It was the site of an abundance of bad memories for him and it was the reason he’d been living in a one-bedroom apartment across campus ever since. He had thought he would never have to be here again, so of course Pidge had been given a dorm room here.

He huffed out a breath and followed as Pidge’s dad led the way to her new room. Keith had managed to pick a surprisingly heavy box so he was out of breath by the time they had climbed the four flights of stairs necessary. Why was he doing this again?

Pidge lit up when he finally got to her room. “My computer! You’re the best, Keith.”

Oh yeah. Because she was his best friend.

Between her parents and himself they got everything from the car to the room in good time. He was half under the futon putting it together when there was a new voice at the door.

“Hey! I’m Lance, your RA for the year. You must be Katie?”

Pidge made a disgruntled sound. “Yeah, but I go by Pidge.” Keith snorted to himself under the futon.

“Got it,” Lance replied, sounding entirely too enthusiastic for move-in day. “Well, your roommate, Linda, won’t be moving in until tomorrow so for tonight you can enjoy having the space to yourself. Are these your parents?”

Pidge hummed in affirmation. “This is my dad, Sam, my mom, Colleen, and over there is my best friend Keith.”

Keith was close to finishing, so rather than emerge he stuck a hand out and waved in the general direction of what he hoped was the door before continuing his work.

“Great!” Lance the Enthusiastic RA replied. “Well, I just wanted to let you know that in a half hour there’s a parent event in the main auditorium, and you should say good bye before that because Kat– I mean Pidge will have some activities going on so you won’t see her after. And, uh, best friend Keith? You don’t have to go to the parents thing but the activities are for residents only.”

“Uh–” Keith had a mouth full of screws because both of his hands were occupied, but thankfully Pidge spoke for him.

“It’s ok, he’s got his own apartment I can banish him to.”

“Great!” Lance said again. Keith began to wonder if he said anything else. “Well, I’ll let you all finish up. It was great meeting you!”

Sam and Colleen returned the compliment and Keith heard footsteps walking away as he tightened the last screw. When he emerged, Sam and Colleen were smiling.

“He seems nice.” “You’ll have a good year here.”

Pidge was close to scowling, so Keith chimed in. “Your futon is good to go, _Katie_.”

She was fully scowling now, and Keith just smirked in return. Before she could retort, however, Sam mentioned leaving which made Colleen start crying. Keith let them have their family hug and didn’t approach until Pidge turned to him once her parents had left.

“Thanks for helping,” she said, giving him a quick hug.

“Not a problem,” he assured her. “Let me know how your floor bonding goes or if you get lost on your way to my place.”

She scoffed at that. “Don’t worry, I won’t get lost. See you later!” She waved and he waved back as he made his way out of the building. Once outside, he saw Sam and Colleen waiting for him.

“Did you want to get some dinner, Keith?” Colleen asked.

Keith lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I’ve got leftovers, and you both have a long drive ahead.”

Sam nodded. “That we do, so we’ll get going,” he said, shaking Keith’s hand. “Thanks again for your help today.”

Keith waved a hand dismissively as Colleen gave him a hug (something he was only just starting to get used to) and made him promise to look out for Pidge. He assured her that he would – it was something he would have done anyways – and then they were gone. He walked over to where he’d parked his bike and looked up at the windows to wave to Pidge before driving off himself.

A few hours later, Keith was warming up some of his leftovers when he saw his phone light up with a text. And he couldn’t help but bark a laugh when he read it.

 **Pidge  
** >Was it a left or a right on Vine from Fowler?

 **Keith**  
>You lost?

 **Pidge**  
>No! I just can’t remember if it’s a left or a right on Vine.

 **Keith**  
>You are lost – I don’t live anywhere near there.

 **Pidge**  
>…oh.  
>Damn.

 **Keith**  
>Stay there, I’ll pick you up in a minute.

Keith was still laughing to himself as he pulled up to the intersection of Fowler and Vine and saw Pidge standing on the corner. He didn’t say anything as he held out his spare helmet, but once inside his apartment all bets were off.

“Were you even listening when I told you my address?”

“Shut up.”

“I mean, Grant and Vine sound nothing alike.”

“Shut up.”

“This is my third year of living in this exact apartment too. I think I should be offended.”

“Keeeiiiittthhh,” she moaned into the couch where she had collapsed.

He decided to take pity on her. “You had dinner yet?”

She nodded. “One of our bonding things was getting food together.” Then the scent of his food hit her. “But are you having mom’s fettuccine alfredo?”

“Pidgey, you know that I love you,” Keith started, moving his bowl out of her reach. “But I am not going to share this. You have your own supply, don’t take from mine.”

She pouted but didn’t fight it. It was common knowledge between them and their brothers that Colleen Holt made the best alfredo sauce on Earth – they all knew not to test the others when it came to this pasta. As consolation, Keith gestured to his movie collection to let her pick what they would watch.

About halfway through their favorite alien documentary, Keith got a text and laughed.

“Pidge, your mom wants you to answer her.”

Pidge gave a long-suffering sigh. “Then tell her to stop texting me every two seconds. It’s because I’m the youngest – she was fine with Matt and then with you but now I’m gone too.”

Keith shook his head. “I’m not getting in the middle of that. She’s your mom.”

Pidge scoffed. “Oh please – she’s yours too by now. You know they would have adopted you if you had let them.”

Keith waved a hand as his phone vibrated again. “This is all besides the point – please respond to your mother so she stops texting me.”

Pidge sighed again but did as asked. The movie finished and Keith stretched as he got up to take his dinner bowl back to the sink. When he looked back at the couch, Pidge was getting ready to pick another movie.

“Oh no,” he stopped her, standing at the front door. “I’m taking you back. You need to get a good night’s sleep before you meet your roommate tomorrow.”

Pidge glared at him. “I’m not looking forward to that and you know it.”

Keith bit back a smirk. He did, but that didn’t mean he didn’t wish he could be there with a camera to document the meeting. “Either way, I’m tired and need to drive you back.”

“I can walk,” she insisted.

Keith couldn’t help but laugh at that one. “You got lost on your way here when it was light out, what makes you think you’ll be able to get back in the dark?”

He had her there and she knew it. He watched her try to come up with a retort and grinned when she remained silent. “C’mon, I’ll get the helmets.”

Grudgingly, she got up and allowed him to take her back to her dorm. “Have a great day tomorrow!” he called after her. The only response he got was a glare, and he laughed as he drove back.

The next day, Keith had gone for his morning run, eaten breakfast, and was reading before he had to go in to work when his phone lit up.

 **Pidge**  
>OMG I hate my roommate.  
>She won’t call me anything but Katie and insists that we’re going to be best friends.  
>SAVE ME

 **Keith**  
>Sorry, I’m busy today.

 **Pidge**  
>Bull shit, you don’t have any other friends.

 **Keith**  
>Rude.

 **Pidge**  
>Ok, that sounded bad but you know what I mean.  
>Please come pick me up, I can’t remember how to get to your place.

 **Keith**  
>You’re forgetting that I have a job.

 **Pidge**  
>Shit.

 **Keith**  
>Have fun today!

 **Pidge**  
>I hate you.

Keith worked at one of the campus libraries. The one on the eighth floor of the Math building, to be precise. Because it was on the top floor, few students knew it was there which meant it was quiet. This suited Keith – he had started at one of the more well-known libraries and asked to change after a week. The constant flow of students asking him the stupidest of questions had driven him batty.

It was a good job for Keith – and not just because he could read or do homework while getting paid. It gave him something to do, and some extra money. Pidge was right when she said that he didn’t have any other friends – he was terrible at meeting new people so he generally kept to himself. Having a job meant that he hadn’t become the campus hermit.

And she had also been correct when she said that her mom was as much his mom as his own mother was anymore. Sam and Colleen were more than willing to help him financially, but this job meant that he could keep his pride intact and not have to ask them for money.

Since the school year hadn’t even started yet, Keith expected a very quiet shift so he made sure to grab his book before he left his apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's art was done by [Aetherlogic](http://aetherlogic.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> The school that everyone goes to, while not named explicitly in here, is heavily based on Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. That's where I went to college, so that's what I know.


	2. Lance

Lance had been nervous about becoming an RA, and on a co-ed freshman floor no less, but after a week of new student orientation he was feeling better about it. He had planned some great activities for his floor and most everyone had been getting to know each other and having a great time.

Lance frowned to himself at that last thought. _Most_ everyone. Katie – er, Pidge, he corrected himself. After the first few mandatory events he had barely seen the girl. He wasn’t sure what to think, he hoped that she was ok.

He had just made the determination that he would get her to an event before the weekend was out when there was a text on his phone and he smiled.

 **Hunk**  
>Hey! I’m all moved in to my new place, wanna come over?

 **Lance**  
>Hunk, my main man! Sure, remind me where your new place is?

 **Hunk**  
>Grant Street – just south of Harrison.

 **Lance**  
>On my way.

As Lance locked his door, he paused a moment to make sure that none of his residents needed him before he started on his way to Hunk’s new apartment. As he passed Kat– Pidges room, he glanced in and saw her at her computer. Maybe this is where she hid herself.

It was far too nice of a day for Lance to drive, so he started walking. Campus wasn’t that spread out and he had long legs so it wouldn’t take too long to get to Hunk’s apartment. Plus, walking would give him time to ponder his weekend goal.

The fact that he had just seen Pidge in her room meant that she was alive, at least, which meant that she didn’t want to go to any of the events he’d planned so far. What did he know about her? She was a Computer Science major and not from nearby. She had two parents and a best friend named Keith who lived in an apartment. And during one of the few events she’d attended he learned that she didn’t like peanuts – not an allergy, they were just so dry to her.

This didn’t give him much to work with. He could do a tour of the area – since she was from a ways away. But they’d already gone on a tour as part of orientation and Lance wasn’t sure what more he could show them since they weren’t twenty-one yet. Maybe something with computers? He wouldn’t even know where to begin planning something like that.

Or maybe he needed something that she would want to do with her friend. He knew even less about the friend than he did about her – all he’d seen of the guy had been his legs and shoes, unless you count the brief moment where his hand had appeared to wave at the window. Black jeans and red converse shoes still wasn’t much to go off of, though.

He was still going through ideas when a motorcycle zoomed past him and into the lot of the building where Lance was headed. Lance paused a moment to admire it before he continued walking, letting another building block his view. It was a sweet-looking bike, and it sounded like it ran great too. Lance had made enough calls to Hunk for help figuring out what was wrong with his car to not know the sound of a good engine.

The rider had disappeared by the time Lance was walking through the lot, so he paused once more for a slightly closer look at the bike. It was a deep red and shone – the owner obviously took great care of it. It looked like whoever they were even paid for a covered parking spot just for the bike.

Lance didn’t have much more time to ogle, though, because Hunk was back in town and Lance had not had a Hunk Hug since May. That was just unacceptable, if you asked him. So he took the stairs two at a time and found apartment 213 quickly. The door swung open and Lance didn’t even have a chance to say hello before he was being crushed into a hug and lifted off his feet.

“Hunk! You trapped my arms, I can’t hug you back!” Hunk set him down with a grin, so Lance was able to throw his arms around his best friend.

“How was your summer?” he asked once they were both inside and on the couch.

“Same as usual,” Hunk replied. “I helped my parents at the restaurant, worked on my robot, then I had to move in here.”

Lance grimaced. “Sorry again for ditching you, roomie.”

Hunk shook his head, dismissing Lance’s apology. “I’ll be fine,” he insisted. “I’m excited for you – you’ll be a great RA.”

Lance smiled his thanks before frowning. “What’s a fun thing for a bunch of freshmen to do with friends?” Confused by the non sequitur, Hunk didn’t immediately respond so Lance elaborated. “I have one kid that hasn’t come to anything since the events stopped being mandatory. I really want her to join an event and not become the loner on the floor.”

Hunk looked pensive, and that was one thing Lance really appreciated about his best friend – if you were concerned about something he wouldn’t dismiss it as silly or unimportant. If it was something that was affecting you, then Hunk would do all he could to help.

“I know she has a friend and he lives off campus, so I’m thinking maybe I could do something that they could both do but all I know is that she doesn’t like peanuts and he wears red converse.”

Hunk nodded as though those were both vital pieces of information. “Well, what did we do together freshman year?”

Lance thought about it. “We went to Shay’s track meets a lot, but those weren’t till Spring. And we went to that one comedy club but it’s not open anymore.”

Hunk’s face lit up and he turned to Lance. “What about trivia? We played Trivial Pursuit all the time!”

Lance smiled back. “Hunk, you’re a genius! Can I borrow the game so that I don’t have to come up with questions?”

“Of course!” Hunk jumped up. “It’s right… right…” He looked around at the still-packed boxes and his face fell.

Lance got up to save him. “C’mon, buddy, let’s get you unpacked. I’ll help you if you make me lunch.”

They both knew that Lance would help and Hunk would make them food even without the deal, but Hunk just nodded with a smile and opened the box closest to him. Between the two of them, it only took an hour and a half for Hunk to have a live-able apartment – books and music organized and everything.

Hunk was in the kitchen when Lance opened the last box to find a picture frame with a picture of the two of them from freshman year, strands of Christmas lights for decorating later in the year, and Trivial Pursuit.

“Huzzah!” Lance cheered, holding up the box like a conquering hero.

“Yay,” Hunk cheered back from the kitchen. “What was that box labelled?”

Lance ducked down to look. “Closet? The only other things inside are a picture frame and the Christmas lights.”

Hunk narrowed his eyes for a moment before shrugging. “I’ve slept since we packed up – there’s no way I’ll remember what we were thinking.”

Lance put the frame on the bookshelf next to the window and left the lights in the box, stashing that in Hunk’s towel closet. Flopping onto the couch, Lance felt a sense of pride. He’d already had a productive day between getting an idea for how to get Pidge out of her room and then helping Hunk finish moving in. And his productivity was duly rewarded when Hunk brought him over a bowl of fried rice.

Back in his own room, Lance designed a flyer to let his residents know about the event and put one under every door. He hoped that everyone would enjoy it. After he passed those around and reminded Ben how to get to the concert hall, Lance sat at his desk to comb through Trivial Pursuit questions.


	3. Great

Keith was at work the next time Pidge texted him. There was precisely one other person in the library at the time, so Keith didn’t feel bad pulling out his phone to look.

 **Pidge**  
>What are you doing tomorrow evening?

 **Keith**  
>I dunno, I’ll probably just play Battlefront or something.  
>Want to join?

 **Pidge**  
>As much fun as conquering the galaxy with you would be, I have a better idea.  
>Trivia night with my floor.  
>It says I can bring a friend.

 **Keith**  
>You want to spend time and bond with them?

 **Pidge**  
>What would you do if I said yes?

 **Keith**  
>I’d ask who you are and what you’ve done with Pidge Holt.

 **Pidge**  
>Ok fine. I want to prove to Linda that I’m smarter than her.

 **Keith**  
>Then why do you want me there?  
>Sounds like fun, good luck.

 **Pidge**  
>No! I need your help!  
>What if there’s a really obscure airplane question?

 **Keith**  
>How does me helping you prove that you are smarter than your roommate?

 **Pidge**  
>Fine.  
>I want to prove that I have better friends than her.

 **Keith**  
>Ok.

 **Pidge**  
>You’ll help me?

 **Keith**  
>Sure.  
>After all, on the incredibly small chance that there will be an obscure airplane question who else would be able to?

 **Pidge**  
>Yay!  
>Between the two of us we have enough useless knowledge that I know we’re gonna win.

 **Keith**  
>Is there even a prize?

 **Pidge**  
>WHO CARES  
>My pride is on the line

 **Keith**  
>So that’s a no. Fair enough.  
>When?

 **Pidge**  
>It starts at 7p  
>Come over early and I’ll get you in to the dining hall.

 **Keith**  
>You should have led with that.  
>Sundays are the best day to eat there.

 **Pidge**  
>I’ll keep that in mind.

He wasn’t about to tell the Holts because they tended to worry about him and he didn’t want them to, but Keith hadn’t actually made any friends in three years of college. The trivia event with Pidge would be the first time he’d been invited to something. And Keith didn’t mind that. He’d rather have one good friend of many years than multiple friends that he didn’t talk to after their shared class was over.

The following day was the day before classes started so Keith was running errands most of the day. He had a couple textbooks to pick up and wanted to stock up on groceries before coursework kicked into high gear.

The afternoon came and Keith rode over to meet Pidge. She was waiting for him outside, so after he parked they headed to the dining hall.

“So how are you going to get me in?” Keith asked. Technically you weren’t allowed a guest but he’d seen people pull it off before.

“You have your school ID, right?” When Keith nodded, she continued. “I got in to the system so you can just swipe your ID and it’ll let you in.”

Keith laughed at that. “You haven’t even been here for a full week and you’ve already gotten into their system?”

Pidge shrugged. “It wasn’t like it was hard.”

Keith shook his head. “Just try not to get kicked out before you’ve even been to a class.”

Pidge gave a wicked smirk. “I can’t get kicked out if they don’t catch me.”

Keith couldn’t argue that, and he didn’t want to draw attention to himself as he approached the ID scanner. Pidge went first, and Keith followed suit. The light went green – he was in. Pidge was still smiling when they both sat at a table.

“Oh man, I’ve missed this dining hall,” Keith said as he started eating. They served the best steak and mozzarella sticks, made even better by the fact that he didn’t have to make any of it himself.

“You’re welcome,” Pidge responded, enjoying her pizza. “You should be able to get in whenever you want now.”

Keith shrugged. “I’m never on this side of campus, so it’ll probably only be with you.”

“Well if you’re ever craving steak and mozzarella sticks you know where to go.”

“They serve this every Sunday,” Keith told her. “That’s why I told you to lead off with this offer.”

Pidge nodded to show that she was listening even with a mouth full of pizza and their conversation lulled to silence as they both finished their dinner. Pidge finished before Keith but didn’t get dessert which led Keith to wonder if she knew it was there. When he put his tray and dishes away, he returned with a cone of ice cream and got his answer.

Pidge’s face lit up. “Where did you get that?”

Keith pointed and she was off like a shot, returning with her own cone and a contented smile. They finished their desserts and then it was time for trivia.

“What’s it called when you look for shapes in the clouds?” Pidge asked. Keith didn’t answer, just looked at her in confusion. “I want to warm up – we have to beat Linda, remember?”

“At least you’re saying ‘we’ now,” Keith replied with a smile. “And your answer is nephelococcygia.”

“How the hell do you even know that?”

“Remember what I’m majoring in? I’ve spent a lot of my life looking at the clouds.” Pidge sighed, which Keith took as grudging acknowledgment of his point so he asked her a question back.

“What is the capital of Assyria?”

It wasn’t a long walk so they weren’t able to ask too many questions before they were outside the room. Pidge led the way in and to a small empty table. They weren’t seated long before a lanky boy with tanned skin approached.

“Hey Pidge, I’m glad you were able to make it!” he said, giving them a pen and answer sheets. “Who’s this?”

“He’s Keith,” she said, waving a hand in Keith’s general direction as she snagged the papers and debated team names.

“Oh, Keith! Great! It’s nice to see more of you – last time I saw you all I could see were your jeans and shoes. I’m Lance, Pidge’s RA.”

Even if he hadn’t included his name, Keith recognized his voice and overuse of ‘great’ as a response. Nevertheless, he stood to shake Lance’s hand. “Good to meet you too.”

“Great, well I need to keep distributing these papers. You two hang tight, we’ll be getting started soon.”

Keith nodded and sat back down, turning his attention to Pidge. “What have you got for team names?”

“I’m thinking ‘Team We’re Smarter Than You, Linda’.”

Keith shook his head. “Too long. We should be ‘Team Great’.”

Pidge raised an eyebrow at that. “That’s super lame, especially coming from you.”

Keith held up a finger. “Hear me out. Have you ever noticed that your RA really likes to use one specific word for everything?”

Pidge cocked her head, but before Keith could elaborate they heard Lance say ‘Great!’ from across the room. Realization dawned on Pidge’s face and they both started laughing. “That’s the one,” Pidge agreed with a giggle.

They got their answer sheets ready and didn’t have long to wait before Lance greeted everyone from the front.

“Hey everyone! Thanks for coming to this event. The way we’re going to play is pretty simple – there are four rounds of four questions each and then two speed rounds where the first person to get up here with the correct answer wins. Ready?”

There was a chorus of agreement, so Lance launched into the questions. For the first round there were the first to turn in their answers and Pidge was able to answer them all. The second round was more difficult, but Keith was able to fill in the gaps in Pidge’s knowledge. They weren’t the first to turn in their answers, though, so Keith heard Pidge grumbling as she wrote down their final answer.

“Damn, Linda beat me this time.” Keith looked up and saw a blonde girl turning in a paper. He knew that looks weren’t everything and all that, but she did look like the last person Pidge would ever choose to live with.

The final round before the scoring intermission was their first speed round. Keith had longer legs than Pidge, so he sat poised to launch and Pidge leaned close to whisper in his ear.

“What’s the name of the largest aircraft ever built?”

Keith didn’t need to wait for Pidge to whisper the answer – he sprang out of his chair and made it to Lance first. “The Spruce Goose.”

Lance had an odd expression on his face that Keith couldn’t interpret, but a moment after he answered the look was replaced by a wide smile. “That’s the one! Points to…”

“Team Great,” Keith supplied with a smirk as he returned to the table where Pidge had her arms in the air.

“Great!” Lance replied, causing Keith and Pidge to snort into their elbows in an attempt to hide their laughter. “There’s going to be a ten-minute break so that I can calculate scores. In the meantime, enjoy the music!”


	4. Purple

Lance was glad for the intermission – it gave him the chance to sit down and hide his face. Black jeans and red converse had not prepared him for how good looking Best Friend Keith was. Even when he’d walked up to their table earlier, the lighting had been different. At the front of the room, Lance had been able to see Best Friend Keith’s purple eyes and he’d been bathed in the soft glow of the lights. Lance’s brain had short-circuited for a moment, thankfully coming back online before anyone had noticed anything.

He mentally gave himself a shake and focused on the scores. He had his computer to help, and thankfully there wasn’t an overwhelming number of teams. After finishing tallying everything up, he glanced through the next round’s questions to remember the theme and called the group’s attention back.

“Alright, we have our intermission standings! In fifth: Hooded Figures. Fourth: Voltron. Third: Not Last. Second: Rogue Squadron. And currently leading is Team Great!”

The other teams had cheered when their name was called, but Pidge and Best Friend Keith simply fist-bumped and grinned. Lance would never admit it, but he found himself mainly watching them as the evening progressed.

“And now it’s time for our final round – the theme is aviation.” Lance was surprised to see Pidge whoop but continued. “First question: What was the original engine for the P-51 Mustang?”

Most of the people in the room gave him blank stares, a few made a face as they wrote, but Pidge simply slid the paper to Keith and he began writing. Huh.

“Two: what’s the longest flight that you can take in one leg?” A few more people looked confident about that one, but Lance was still watching Keith who wrote his answer immediately and looked back up for the next question.

“Three: what were the only routes that the Concorde was allowed to fly for British Airways? Hint: there are six of them.” Lance was no longer surprised that Keith simply started writing, he idly wondered what that guy’s story was as he gave everyone time to think about the question.

“And last: what plane is preferred by the group Far East Movement?” In a reversal of fortunes, after this question most groups grinned and wrote an answer while Pidge and Keith looked at each other blankly. Had they really managed to avoid ever hearing that song? He didn’t give everyone much time to think, though, because their second speed round was next and it was the last question of the evening.

“Alright, this one is worth extra points – it can make or break your evening! What company developed the graphical user interface?”

It looked like Pidge had to give Keith the answer so Linda beat Keith to Lance. He knew that he shouldn’t be rooting for one team, but Lance couldn’t help the pang of disappointment. He told himself that it was just that he wanted Pidge to have a good time at her first voluntary event. That there wasn’t another reason.

“Apple,” Linda said confidently, but Lance shook his head. He heard Pidge let out a cackle and saw Keith pull a quick about-face to return to Lance’s table.

“I’m sorry, Apple is not correct,” Lance told Linda He turned to face Keith expectantly and prayed that his face didn’t betray the heat he felt as he got to see Keith’s lovely purple eyes up close again.

“Xerox,” Keith supplied with a knowing smirk.

Lance couldn’t help the smile that he gave in return. “Correct! Well done, Team Great! Now everyone give me a couple minutes and I’ll tally up the final scores.”

He turned the music back up and focused on his laptop. He made himself do the math manually so that he wasn’t focusing on the table in the back corner where a boy with dark hair and purple eyes was sitting. Once the final scores were tabulated, Lance gave himself a mental shake. Before tonight all he had seen of the man had been black jeans and red converse. He couldn’t let himself get carried away after just an hour.

One deep breath later, Lance turned down the music and stood up. “Alright, the final scores are ready! In fifth, ironically, is team Not Last. Fourth: Hooded Figures. Third: Voltron. Second: Rogue Squadron. Which means tonight’s winner is Team Great!”

Once again there was no exuberant celebration from Pidge and Keith – just more smirks and fist bumps. Lance was glad to see that Pidge was smiling, though, and was grateful that she’d had a good time.

“Thank you all for joining the fun and I hope you all had as good of a time as I did!”

The people started filing out and Lance set about putting the room back to rights. He was pleasantly surprised to see Pidge and Keith helping collect the pens and trash. He called out a thanks as they exited and they waved in return.

 **Lance**  
>Hunk  
>Hunk  
>Hunk!

 **Hunk  
** >Yes, Lance?

 **Lance  
** >How common are purple eyes?

 **Hunk**  
>Remarkably not.  
>Like really really uncommon.

 **Lance  
** >Curse my bisexual heart.

 **Hunk  
** >Wait, have you met someone with purple eyes?

 **Lance  
** >Yes and I think I’m in love.

 **Hunk**  
>Who cares about you I want to meet this person!  
>Also weren’t you in love with that one redhead girl last week?

 **Lance  
** >I’m just a loving guy, Hunk.

 **Hunk  
** >You’re a shameless flirt, that’s what you are.

 **Lance  
** >You wound me.

 **Hunk  
** >That’s what best friends are for.

Lance couldn’t help but smile at his conversation with Hunk – the guy really did know him well. He couldn’t dwell for long, though, because he had class to wake up for tomorrow.

His first class went well and then his second class was with Hunk! Before it started, Lance opened his laptop where the trivia scoring sheet was still open. Hunk glanced over, his mouth dropping open when he saw Pidge and Keith’s team score. Not only had they won, they had blown the other teams out of the water. Hunk nabbed the laptop and stared at the questions.

“How did they even know some of these?” Hunk asked in awe.

Lance could only shrug. “They knew those, but look at what they missed too. Who hasn’t heard ‘Fly Like a G6’?”

Hunk shook his head. “If I wasn’t looking at the scores I don’t think I’d believe you.”

They had to suspend their conversation when the professor entered the room, and once the lecture was over there were more important things to worry about.

“Ugh, I can already tell that I’m going to hate this class,” Lance moaned and Hunk silently nodded as they walked to their favorite lunch haunt. It was a small alcove with chairs and tables in the Math building – few other students seemed to realize that it was there so there almost always was an open table. It was the perfect haunt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's art is by [Aetherlogic](http://aetherlogic.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Credit to my husband, Geoff, for his help with the trivia questions. I asked for obscure airplane questions and boy did he deliver...
> 
> In case you were wondering:  
> The P-51 Mustang's original engine was the Allison V-1710; the longest flight leg you can take is Auckland, New Zealand to Doha, Qatar; the Concorde flew Heathrow to Washington Dulles, Miami, Bridgetown, Bahrain, Singapore, and New York City for British Airlines; and the group Far East Movement prefers a G6.


	5. Classes

Keith’s first day of classes for the semester had been the best of his college career. His was finally getting to the classes that were the reason he was a Professional Flight major and he couldn’t wait to see what they offered.

His second day, on the other hand, was significantly less enjoyable. He had put off taking some of the general classes that he would need to graduate in the hope that the degree requirements would change. They hadn’t, so here he was taking introductory Spanish and calculus as a fourth year student just because some university official said that he needed them if he wanted a diploma. He understood the foreign language requirement – he might need to know another language if he flew internationally.

But no matter how he wracked his brain he had no idea when he would need to use calculus as a pilot so he resented having to take that course. Shiro had taken so many upper level math courses that Keith knew it could be worse, but that didn’t make him feel any better.

On Fridays he wouldn’t have much time between his class ending and his shift at the library beginning, so he decided to stake out a place to eat lunch on campus rather than heading back to his apartment. It didn’t take him long – there was an alcove with some chairs and tables in the basement of the Math building. Keith sat at a free table and pulled out his food and book. With his headphones in, he couldn’t hear if anyone called his name so he was able to sit there until his shift started. Even then, the only thing that changed was that Keith wasn’t allowed to listen to his music at work in case someone needed help. It was only a week in to the semester, though, so Keith didn’t anticipate many questions. Instead he sat back in his chair and played a game on his phone while he texted his brother.

 **Shiro  
** >How was your first week of classes?

 **Keith  
** >Can you think of a single instance when a pilot would need to use fucking calculus?

 **Shiro  
** >That good, huh?

 **Keith  
** >They’re not bad, I just wish I didn’t have to take this calc class.

 **Shiro  
** >Just be glad that you don’t have to go past calc.

 **Keith**  
>I’m shuddering just imagining it.  
>I don’t know how you did it.

 **Shiro  
** >Lots and lots of caffeine.

 **Keith**  
>No wonder you love Allura so much – she was the best barista in town.  
>It was very rude of you to take her away.

 **Shiro  
** >I didn’t take her, she chose to move.

 **Keith**  
>And you lured her away with your fancy words and promises of the future.  
>When are you going to propose, btw?

 **Shiro**  
>Soon.  
>What would you say to her coming with us to see mom and dad this year?

 **Keith  
** >That’s fine, but please tell me you’re not planning to propose in a graveyard.

 **Shiro**  
>No! Have some faith in me.  
>I was thinking we’d make it a long weekend and visit campus since we haven’t been back in a while.

 **Keith  
** >You’re not missing much.

 **Shiro  
** >You’ll understand when you’re older.

 **Keith  
** >You’re only 4 years older than me.

 **Shiro  
** >And yet I managed to raise you.

 **Keith  
** >Colleen and Sam might contest that one.

 **Shiro  
** >Ok, they helped.

 **Keith  
** >Brotherly bonding aside, back to Allura?

 **Shiro  
** >Right – I’m thinking I’ll ask her on campus.

 **Keith  
** >Neat, bro. Let me know if you need me to scout locations or anything

It was a good thing there were only three others in the library because then Pidge started texting him and he couldn’t even pretend to be paying attention to the library patrons.

 **Pidge  
** >Keith, my dude. What are you doing this evening?

 **Keith  
** >I get off work at 4 and after that I dunno. Why?

 **Pidge  
** >My RA said that I could bring a friend to the poker night he planned for tonight.

 **Keith**  
>Ah, Mr Great.  
>No offense, but as much fun as clearing out a bunch of freshmen in no-stakes poker sounds I’d rather shoot some Stormtroopers.

 **Pidge**  
>None taken, that does sound better.  
>Can I join you?

 **Keith  
** >Have you figured out where I live yet?

 **Pidge  
** >... not quite yet.

 **Keith  
** >I’ll walk over after work and we can walk.

 **Pidge  
** >Coolio.

As they were shooting their way through the Empire’s forces on the forest moon of Endor, Pidge kept up a steady stream of complaints about the trees and underbrush.

“What the devil are you even complaining about?” Keith asked during their third round of liberating the local ewoks.

“Biology!” Pidge said, firing a rocket at a tree for no apparent reason. “I already hate that class.”

Keith shook his head. “Yeah, I never liked biology either. Come back to me when you’re in physics.”

Pidge kept firing at the trees, so Keith let her.


	6. Motorcycle

Lance was still smiling as he put away all of the cards and chips from his poker night event. The attendees all had a great time, so Lance tried not to dwell on how Pidge hadn’t been there even after he’d said that she could bring a friend.

He was debating between seeing if Hunk wasn’t with his girlfriend or just Netflix-ing his night away when the sound of a motorbike drew his attention out his window. He immediately moved to be subtle about his staring when he saw Pidge dismounting and giving the driver her helmet. He heard her laugh and the driver waved before turning around and motoring away. Lance had only seen her hang with one other person, and he felt his mouth drop open. That must have been Keith!

 **Lance  
** >Hunk! Keith has a motorcycle!

 **Hunk  
** >Who’s Keith?

 **Lance**  
>Mr Purple Eyes!  
>HE HAS A MOTORCYCLE!  
>I’M DYING!

 **Hunk**  
>Buddy I need you to calm down with the caps lock and exclamation points.  
>How do you know it’s him?

 **Lance**  
>He’s the only person I’ve seen Pidge with and she just got off a bike.  
>Ipso facto Colombo Oreo – Keith has a bike.

 **Hunk  
** >That’s pretty neat.

 **Lance**  
>Ugh, you’re no help.  
>Have fun with Shay, I’ll just die on my own in my room.

 **Hunk  
** >You’ll be ok.

As the next few weeks passed, Lance continued to want to know more about Keith which was made difficult when Pidge didn’t show any interest in the events Lance would plan. He saw them walking to the dining hall every Sunday, but he apparently hadn’t managed to lure them back yet. Lance was nothing if not persistent, though, and he made it his own personal goal to get them to another event before the semester was out. He was contemplating what kind of event might tempt them back when there was a timid knock on his open door. He twisted to see who it was and was surprised to see Pidge standing in his doorway. He couldn’t help but glance over her shoulder in hopes of seeing Keith. He wasn’t there, so Lance hid his surprise and glance in a bright smile.

“Hi, Pidge! What’s up?”

She quirked a grin in response but otherwise looked annoyed. “Would you happen to know biology at all? I have a midterm coming up and I don’t get anything.”

Lance shook his head in sympathy. “Yeah, I was never a fan of bio either. However, I know just the tutor for you,” he said as he pulled out his phone.

 **Lance  
** >You busy?

 **Hunk**  
>Not really, just thinking about dinner.  
>Wanna come over?

 **Lance**  
>Tempting, but I have a request for you.  
>One of my residents has a bio midterm coming up and is really lost. Can you help her out?

 **Hunk  
** >Of course! I’ll be there in 10.

“My best friend is getting a minor in biology,” Lance explained to Pidge as he texted Hunk. “He can help you out, and he says he’ll be here in a few minutes.”

Relief washed over Pidge’s face. “Great, thanks!”

Lance assured her that it was no problem as she returned to her room and he grinned to himself. He was really happy that she had thought to ask him.

True to his word, in ten minutes Hunk texted Lance to let him in and Lance went to meet his friend.

“Thanks again, man,” Lance said as he led Hunk upstairs.

Hunk waved that away. “I’m glad to help. Which resident is it?”

“Pidge,” Lance told him, agreeing with Hunk’s raised eyebrows. “I know. I’m hoping this means she’s finally feeling comfortable here.” Hunk nodded but didn’t have the time to respond before they were at Pidge’s door.

“Hunk, this is Pidge,” he introduced them. “Pidge, Hunk here is my best friend. He’s minoring in bio and he’s an awesome teacher – you’ll be ready for your midterm in no time.”

Lance could tell that Hunk was embarrassed by the praise, but he deserved it. As Lance walked back to his room he could hear them start talking bio to each other and Lance nodded to himself.

He had his own studying to do, so he pulled out his text book and started work. And proceeded to wish that he didn’t have to even be in the class. He finished his homework, and then decided to just lay on his book in the hope that the knowledge would transfer into his brain before his midterm.

The sound of a motorcycle getting closer told Lance that it was five and he moved to his usual hiding spot to watch Keith. After a month and a half of seeing them go to dinner together every Sunday, Lance still wished he could get to know Keith better. He didn’t believe in love at first sight, no matter what he might say, but he could tell a crush when he had one.

But luck seemed to be on Lance’s side this evening – as he was thinking that he’d like to see Keith again Pidge appeared outside and led him back into the building. Lance supposed that she and Hunk must not be done yet. As he listened for the sound of them reentering Pidge’s room, he debated how long he should wait so that it would feel natural that he happened to be walking past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's art is by [PookElucy](http://pookelucy.tumblr.com/)!


	7. Spanish

As Keith pulled into his usual parking spot outside Pidge’s dorm, he looked up at her window but was distracted by the curtains moving in the window a few away. As he peered at the other window in confusion, he heard Pidge call his name.

“Sorry, I’m studying with someone and we aren’t done yet. Do you want to come up and wait?”

“Sure,” Keith agreed, stuffing his keys into his pocket and running a hand through his hair. Midterms were coming up, so he couldn’t blame her for losing track of the time.

When they made it to her room, Pidge introduced Keith to Hunk – evidently he was getting a minor in bio and was helping Pidge study. Keith was glad that she’d found someone to help – there was a reason he avoided that class like the plague. When they shook hands, Hunk’s eyes widened and Keith winced involuntarily.

“So you’re Mr Purple Eyes!”

Keith let his hand fall and looked at Hunk in confusion. “I…  guess?”

Hunk smiled, and Keith wondered at how that immediately put him at ease. “Sorry, Lance told me he’d met someone with purple eyes and I was jealous because that’s a really uncommon trait.”

“Yeah,” Keith said, thinking back on how he’d been called an alien in middle school. Hunk might have been the first person who was really excited to see Keith and his eyes.

He still wasn’t all that comfortable being ogled, so he moved to sprawl on the futon while the study session finished up. It wasn’t very long, though, before he heard Pidge’s RA calling his name.

“Hey, Keith!”

“Hey, it’s Mr Great the RA,” Keith responded. Pidge glared.

Looking unsure how to take that, Lance just continued on. “Uh, the name’s Lance. In case you forgot. I was just stopping by to see how the studying was going, I’ll get out of the way.”

Keith waved as he left but wasn’t paying attention to him. Pidge had typed something into her phone and then looked at Keith’s phone meaningfully. He rotated it so that she could see that he didn’t have a text, and she swore under her breath as he saw her typing again.

 **Pidge  
** >What the hell? I don’t want him to hate me, since he found me a bio tutor.

 **Keith**  
>Don’t worry, it went right over his head.  
>Also, your threatening tone isn’t as effective knowing you sent it to the wrong person first.  
>Matt’s probably really confused.

 **Pidge  
** >I didn’t send it to him – I sent it to your brother.

 **Keith  
** >Oh. Hell.

 

 **Shiro  
** >What are you doing to Pidge?

 **Keith  
** >Nothing.

 **Shiro**  
>The text she sent me rather than you implies otherwise.  
>Be nice to Pidge, she’s like the little sister I never had.

 **Keith  
** >Compared to me, the little brother that’s actually related to you.

“Is that your bike?”

Hunk’s question pulled Keith’s attention back. Pidge was working something out on her own, so Hunk had twisted to talk to Keith.

“Yeah,” Keith responded, not even needing to look because he knew that his bike was the only one in the lot.

“It looks awesome,” Hunk said with an appreciative nod. “And it looks familiar. Do you live near Grant and Harrison?”

Keith’s eyes widened slightly. “Thanks, and that’s the corner I live on.”

“Whoa, how cool!” Hunk replied with a smile that Keith couldn’t help but return. “That’s my building too! No wonder it looks familiar.”

Keith was saved from having to respond by Pidge needing Hunk’s attention again. That was the last of the study session, too, so Pidge and Hunk packed up after walking through it. Pidge thanked Hunk profusely, to which he responded that he was just glad to help.

“Bye, neighbor.” Hunk waved to Keith who was surprised but waved back as he and Pidge started their trek to the dining hall.

“So how’s Shiro?” Pidge asked with an innocent smile.

“He likes you better than me,” Keith responded.

Pidge scoffed. “We’ve known that for seven years.”

Keith smirked back. “Well, he’s finally thinking about proposing to Allura.”

Pidge clapped her hands together. “It’s about damn time too.”

Keith agreed wholeheartedly and they decided to plan a way to force Shiro into asking if he hadn’t by the time they next saw him. This planning took up most of their dinner conversation and steadily got more and more ridiculous but there wasn’t really any fun in planning realistic scenarios, after all.

Keith was at work the next Friday when he heard familiar voices outside the library.

“Dude, did you know that there was a library in this building?”

“Of course, it’s on the sign downstairs.”

Keith just rolled his eyes and kept his eyes on his homework as he listened to the voices enter the library. He hadn’t planned on looking up, but a startled “Hey!” drew his attention to Lance and Hunk. They were standing in front of the desk – Lance’s mouth hanging slightly open and Hunk giving a small wave. Keith waved back and Lance found his voice. “What are you doing here?”

Keith blinked, but before he could respond Hunk nudged Lance and pointed to something on the desk. Keith couldn’t see it, but he knew what they were looking at. On the desk, there was a small sign that said “The Librarian On Duty Is: Keith”.

Lance didn’t respond immediately, so Hunk took advantage of his friend’s silence. “Hey man, are you ok? I heard your bike getting back pretty late last night.”

Keith winced. “I’m sorry, did I wake you up? I work the late shift here on Thursdays.”

Hunk waved away his apology. “Nah, I was up studying. I’ve never been woken up by you getting back that late before, so you’re fine.”

Keith nodded, relieved, but was cut off by Lance. He had been watching the back and forth with wide eyes and Keith assumed that he just couldn’t remain silent any longer. “Wait, do you actually know each other?” Keith wasn’t sure how to define the look on Lance’s face – if he didn’t know better, the man almost looked jealous.

Hunk shrugged. “Keith lives in the same building as I do – I recognized his bike.”

Lance threw his hands into the air. “Hunk, you’re a terrible best friend!” he declared as he turned to find an open table. Keith watched him go in confusion, but he waved back when Hunk waved before he followed Lance. Once they were gone, Keith pushed those thoughts out of his mind so that he could refocus on his calculus work.

The following Monday, Keith was surprised when Lance returned to the library without Hunk. He greeted Keith and Keith said hi back, but that was all the contact they had. Tuesday and Wednesday were the same – Lance showed up soon after Keith’s afternoon shift started and sat at a table to work. Thursday came and Keith found himself wondering what Lance had thought when Keith wasn’t there at his usual time.

Keith was engrossed in studying for the Spanish exam he had the next morning when Lance’s greeting shocked him out of his notes. Lance seemed to be able to read the surprise on Keith’s face and his cheeks gained a faint pink tint.

“I remember you saying that you worked late on Thursdays,” he explained quickly before he changed the subject. “So, what are you working on?”

Keith’s surprise changed into a scowl. “Spanish,” he complained.

Keith wasn’t sure why he told Lance – he barely knew the guy – but Lance’s face split into a grin. “Tienes suerte, mi amigo. ¡Puedo ayudarte!”

Keith knew that had been Spanish, but Lance had spoken with the fluency of a native speaker which meant that Keith had only picked out the word ‘amigo’. “Uh…”

Keith was relieved when Lance took pity on him. “I can help you out, man.”

Keith appreciated the offer but he hesitated. “Do you need to do your own work?”

Lance waved a hand dismissively. “Nothing that can’t wait. Do you want help?”

Keith let himself grin. “If you really don’t mind.” Lance grinned broadly and Keith definitely didn’t stare. Definitely.

“¡Bueno! What’s first?”


	8. Grave

Lance couldn’t believe his luck when Keith actually agreed to let Lance help, so he pushed it the next day and sat at a table right next to Keith’s post. Keith raised an eyebrow but didn’t tell him to move so Lance counted that as a victory and proceeded to talk with Keith.

At first, Keith hadn’t joined in the conversation much but as the daily chats continued he started opening up little by little. Lance relished the small bits of information that he gleaned – Keith worked on his bike by himself because he didn’t want a mechanic messing with it, he’d always been something of a loner, he could speak some Korean and Japanese even though he rarely used them. In return, Lance made sure to tell Keith plenty about himself so that it didn’t feel like Lance was just there to fish for information. He kinda was, but Keith didn’t need to know that.

Early November was when the biggest bombs dropped. Lance had noticed that Keith was especially quiet one week so on Thursday night he tried to lighten the mood by telling a story about his family. Keith had grinned when appropriate but didn’t supply anything extra. Lance wasn’t having that this evening.

“What about your family?” he asked, leaning in towards Keith.

Keith stiffened up and leaned away. “Well, the Holts have all kinds of stories. Ask Pidge – she tells them better than I do.”

Lance shook his head. “But I’m asking you. And not about your friends – I mean your family. You have any siblings? Where do your parents live?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Keith said stiffly.

Lance knew that Keith was generally a quiet guy, but he didn’t like how Keith was retreating into himself. Lance had put a lot of time and effort into getting to know Keith and he wasn’t about to let all that progress slip away. So he insisted.

“I said I don’t want to talk about it!” Keith hissed. Lance drew back, surprised at the ferocity in Keith’s eyes. Keith immediately turned back to his work, leaving Lance stunned.

Alright, he probably shouldn’t have pushed so hard. But why the outburst? Lance had thought they’d become friends. Keith never looked up, though, even when Lance picked up his things and left.

**Lance  
** >I should have known better than to try. I don’t need any other friends when I have you.

 **Hunk  
** >Not that I don’t appreciate it, but what?

 **Lance**  
>I tried to make a new friend and it didn’t work.  
>Looks like you’re stuck with me, buddy.

 **Hunk  
** >I’m sure Keith doesn’t hate you.

 **Lance**  
>I think he does.  
>Also, what makes you think this is about him??

 **Hunk**  
>He’s all you’ve texted me about recently.  
>Want to bake cookies with me?

 **Lance  
** >Can’t – I have rounds tonight.

 **Hunk  
** >Then I’ll bring them to you.

 **Lance  
** >You’re the best <3

Lance debated with himself whether or not to go to the library the next day. He didn’t want Keith to yell at him, but he also knew that he would miss getting to see those eyes all weekend so he was in the library at his usual time. But Keith wasn’t.

Lance approached the desk slowly. There was a blonde girl seated there and it looked wrong to someone who had grown accustomed to seeing the same person there whenever he was in the library. The girl noticed Lance and smiled at him. “Can I help you with anything?”

“Where’s Keith?” Lance asked, trying not to sound too disappointed. “He’s usually here at this time.”

The girl shrugged. “He’s not working today – he requested it off a while ago. So I got scheduled instead.”

Lance thanked her and walked back to his room. What was Keith doing that he specifically requested this day off? As he walked past Pidge’s room he heard agitated pacing and slowed to ask if there was something he could help with. She spoke before he could though, and he realized that she was on the phone.

“Are you sure you’re ok? Good – now call mom and dad. I can’t believe you called me first! Yeah, I’ll make sure he’s ok. Tell Shiro to get better, and you get better too. Love you, Matt.”

She hung up and saw Lance loitering in her doorway. He hurried to explain himself. “I didn’t hear much, you just sounded – I wanted to help if I could – I’ll just go.”

“It’s ok,” Pidge stopped his rambling. “My brother and Keith’s brother were in a car accident but they’re both alright. I’m just worried about Keith.”

Lance fought hard to not let his crush show. “Why?”

Pidge had been looking at him when explaining, but at Lance’s question she suddenly shifted and looked away. “I, erm, he’s – he’s not feeling well,” she said. Lance wasn’t sure what being sick had to do with their brothers being hurt, and Pidge seemed to realize that it didn’t make sense to her either. “Thanks for checking on me,” she said as she sat down at her computer. “I have some studying to do.” She put her headphones on, preventing Lance from asking anything else.

He wasn’t sure what or why Pidge wasn’t telling him, so he decided to take her words at face value. If Keith wasn’t feeling well yesterday that could be why he snapped at Lance. Lance couldn’t stay angry at Keith, so instead he wanted to try and help. He could make some sopa de pollo – that was what his mom had always made for him and his siblings when any of them were sick. It shouldn’t be too difficult to make.

One phone call and trip to the store later, Lance was in the dorm kitchen and following the instructions that he had scribbled as his mom told him what to do. Lance knew that he could have gotten Hunk’s help, but he really wanted to do this on his own. He didn’t let his mind dwell on any possible implications of that and instead focused on the food he was preparing. And when that was done, he buckled the tub of soup in so that nothing would spill in his car on the drive.

Once at the building, though, Lance had to pause moment. All he knew was that Keith lived in the building – he had no idea which apartment. He thought he remembered seeing Keith descend the stairs as he entered Hunk’s apartment, so he started with the third floor.

Two apartments later, Lance was starting to doubt his plan. The first apartment had been empty; the second door was answered by a short girl who simply glared at him before slamming the door in his face. Apartment three was at least nicer, telling him that the soup smelled amazing, and then there was only one more door on this floor. After he knocked, he heard a groan from inside.

“Pidge, I told you I’m ok. Stop–” Keith’s rather healthy-sounding voice cut off when he opened the door and saw Lance there. “Oh.”

“Hey,” Lance said, suddenly feeling nervous at how Keith would react to seeing him at his apartment uninvited. “I heard you weren’t feeling well so I made some sopa de pollo – chicken noodle – it’s what my mom would always make when I was sick.”

Keith looked genuinely shocked at that explanation. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Lance shrugged. “I wanted to.”

Rather than respond, Keith stepped aside and Lance walked in to put the soup in the kitchen. As he walked, he noticed that the main room was in disarray – clothes and books and things all over. This didn’t seem like Keith at all.

“Are you really ok?” Lance asked.

Keith rubbed the back of his neck as he looked around as well. “Yeah, it’s just a weird weekend.”

“And it’s only Friday afternoon,” Lance mused. “Are you going somewhere?”

Keith shrugged. “I’ve never gone to the graves without my brother, so I can’t decide whether to go or not.”

Keith seemed calm but Lance was slightly alarmed at that proclamation. “Wait, graves?”

Keith shut his eyes as though he just realized what he said and gave a resigned sigh. “Yeah, my parents.”

Oh.

Suddenly his mood made much more sense. Keith was an orphan and Lance had been bragging about his own family, pestering Keith about it. Lance had never felt so stupid in his life. “Is the anniversary this weekend, then?”

Keith nodded, eyes still closed. “Yeah, and Shiro can’t come since he’s in the hospital overnight.”

“Then I’ll go with you,” Lance heard himself say.

Keith’s eyes snapped open at that. “You what?”

“I’ll go visit your parents with you,” Lance repeated, feeling his conviction grow. He hadn’t been sure how to help his friend, but this felt right.

“Lance, it’s three hours away. And I have a motorcycle.”

“Well I have a car.”

“Shiro and I usually stay overnight in a hotel.”

“I don’t have plans tomorrow morning.”

“Why?” Keith’s voice cracked and his last question hung in the air between them. Lance knew that he had to get this one right.

“Because you’re my friend, Keith,” Lance replied simply. Keith didn’t move, so Lance made plans and hoped that he was listening. “Now, I’ve got to pack so you gather your things and I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”

Keith still hadn’t smiled as Lance was leaving but Lance thought that he saw Keith’s mouth starting to curl into a smile and let himself smile too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's art is by [Aetherlogic](http://aetherlogic.tumblr.com/)!


	9. Drive

_“Because you’re my friend, Keith.”_

Keith was still frozen in place when Lance left, a smile growing on his face. He was shit at making friends, but somehow Lance had snuck his way past whatever invisible barrier Keith evidently projected.

He came to himself five minutes later, still just standing in his apartment and smiling. He was still unsure whether he thought that Lance would actually return but just in case he wanted to be ready. It didn’t take him long, so with ten of Lance’s thirty minutes left Keith was sitting on his couch and looking at his phone.

 **Pidge**  
>Are you sure you’re alright?  
>Are you going to go? I wish I could join you  
>If you’re not I’ll come over and we can liberate the galaxy together.

 **Keith  
** >Let’s do that Sunday. I’m going.

 **Pidge  
** >Alone?

 **Keith  
** >I don’t think so?

 **Pidge**  
>What does that mean?  
>Wait, Lance just walked past my room with a duffel.

 **Keith  
** >Really?

 **Pidge  
** >Is Lance going with you? I didn’t realize you were friends.

 **Keith  
** >He might be? And I didn’t realize either.

 **Pidge  
** >You’re useless. Tell your parents hi from me.

Keith barely had time to acknowledge that Lance was evidently returning after all when another text came through.

 **Shiro**  
>Hey, Allura brought me my phone.  
>Sorry again about the weekend. The hotel reservation hasn’t been cancelled, if you still want to go.

 **Keith  
** >I’m going, so thanks.

 **Shiro  
** >That’s great! Will you be alone?

 **Keith  
** >No.

 **Shiro  
** >You know how Colleen feels about Pidge riding with you for long rides.

 **Keith  
** >It’s not Pidge.

 **Shiro  
** >Are you going to tell me who? Because I’m starting to doubt that it’s a real person.

 **Keith  
** >How would it not be a real person?

 **Shiro**  
>Yeah, you were never the type for imaginary friends.  
>It’s not an internet person, is it? I have an internet safety speech all ready if you give me a few minutes to type it out.

 **Keith  
** >Well he’s going to pick me up any second now so that will have to wait.

 **Shiro  
** >He? Pick you up?

 **Keith**  
>And he goes to school here – I met him in the library. You’re such a dad.  
>He has a car so he’s driving.

 **Shiro  
** >I’m glad to hear it. Tell mom and dad I’m sorry I won’t be there, and thank ‘Him’ for me.

Keith narrowed his eyes at Shiro’s last text in confusion, but before he could ask there was a knock at his door. When he swung it open, Lance was frowning. As Keith’s hopes fell, he cursed himself for letting them grow in the first place. Lance had changed his mind.

“Can I see your phone?”

“Uh…” That hadn’t been what Keith was expecting, so when he didn’t respond further Lance grabbed Keith’s phone out of his hand and typed something in to it.

“There,” he declared, handing Keith his phone back. “It occurred to me that we don’t have each other’s phone numbers so now we do. You ready?”

Keith just nodded and grabbed his bag. After locking the door, he looked at his phone. There was a sent text to a mystery number that said “Hi, Lance!” As he was looking, a response came from the mystery number: “Why hello there, Keith!”

Keith glanced up in time to see Lance with a wide grin and snorted in response. Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, Keith still wasn’t sure Lance would actually want to go so he hesitated once they got to Lance’s car.

“You’ll need to give me directions,” Lance said, getting into the driver’s seat. “Just put your bag in the back seat – that’s usually where I put mine.”

Keith could feel his sour mood dissipating as he put his bag in the back and sat in the passenger seat. “Head to the highway and go north,” he instructed as Lance pulled out of the parking lot. “And… thanks.”

Lance smiled broadly but waved that away. “Alright, I made a road trip playlist – hit play on my phone and let’s get rocking!” Keith did as asked, and immediately cringed as Nikki Minaj began blasting from the speakers. He turned to Lance to beg to change the music but the boy was singing along and dancing and Keith found that he didn’t want that to stop.

They cruised along the highway in companionable silence, switching drivers when Lance grew tired, until Lance’s playlist ran out.

“Can you please change the music?” Keith asked before Lance could start the list over.

“Only if you plug yourself in,” Lance replied. “I’m an Apple guy.”

Keith snorted as he pulled his own cord out of his pocket. “I have a CS major for a best friend. I think I would get hurt if I so much as held an Apple device.”

Lance’s scoff turned into an appreciative “Huh” when Keith’s phone played blink-182. “How did you and Pidge become friends?”

Keith wasn’t used to people wanting to get to know him, but Lance seemed genuinely curious so he obliged. “Well, our older brothers are the same age. They met in college and then the Holts started inviting us over for holidays and vacations and the like. Pidge and I are the two younger siblings, so we hung out most of the times.”

Lance nodded. “Makes sense. What about your other friends? Do they go to school with us?”

Keith let out a quick, sharp breath. “Yeah, Lance, you go to school with me,” he replied, focusing on the road.

“No, I mean your oth–” Lance cut off and Keith hoped that his face wasn’t as red as it felt. Lance didn’t speak for a moment, so Keith broke the silence with a sigh.

“If you don’t count Pidge, and I don’t, then you’re the first friend that I’ve made since my parents were alive.”

“No way,” Lance said after a moment. “You’re just saying that. Everyone makes friends their freshman year.”

Keith frowned at the steering wheel. “My freshman year was hell. And why would I just say that?”

Lance didn’t respond for an entire mile. Keith braced himself and looked over to see Lance gazing at him, mouth open. “What?”

Lance shut his mouth and shook his head as Keith returned his attention to the road. Keith didn’t know if he should say something and dreaded saying something stupid but was saved by Lance’s voice.

“I’m glad we’re friends, Keith,” he said softly. Keith grinned in response. “Well,” Lance continued, louder and brighter. “As your friend I need to know everything about you. And since you’re my friend you need to know about me too!”

Keith quirked an eyebrow but didn’t say no, so evidently Lance took that as assent and launched into a game of twenty questions. “What would you do if you found a spaceship and had to save the planet?”

Keith found that he was enjoying himself as the questions got steadily weirder and lasted the remainder of the drive. As he pulled into the hotel parking lot, Lance looked around surprised.

“Wow, you didn’t even need The Google,” he observed, getting out and stretching his arms above his head. Keith forced his eyes away from the strip of brown skin that appeared between shirt and jeans.

“This is where my brother and I always stay,” Keith explained, walking inside the building.

“Really?” Lance asked as he looked around the lobby.

Keith nodded. “Ever since he started college. Hi,” he greeted the front desk receptionist. “I have a reservation – last name Shirogane.”

“Ah, Takashi?” the guy asked with a smile.

Keith nodded and help out his ID and credit card. “Yeah, that’s my brother.”

“Excellent. Well, Mr Kyeong, if you’ll just give me a moment – your room is ready and I’ll get your keys made.”

“Thanks,” Keith replied, turning back to Lance. “You hungry?”

“Famished,” Lance replied with a dramatic sigh.

Keith chuckled in response and grabbed the keys. “C’mon, let’s drop our stuff off and then I know a great pub nearby.”

The restaurant was within walking distance, so once Keith parked the car and they both threw their bags in to the beds they walked. Thankfully, it wasn’t busy so they got their food quickly. After their dinners were finished, they decided that they were just hungry enough to share a dessert so while they waited for that Lance started up the conversation again. “What do you do when you’re not at class or work?”

Keith shrugged. “Study. Run. I have a PS4, so I play some games too.”

Lance shook his head. “Dude, you need more life in your life.”

Keith smirked. “You sound like my brother.”

“Did he tell you to get a cat? Because you should totally get a cat.”

Keith snorted. “He gave me a choice between that or a boyfriend.”

Lance’s mouth opened in a small O and his eyes widened. Keith’s brain caught up to what his mouth had just let slip and he froze. He probably looked like a spooked woodland animal, and he had to actively fight the urge to run away.

 _Lance said he’s your friend_ , he repeated to himself. That didn’t prevent him from remembering the harassment of multiple high schools and his freshman dorm.

“Coño,” Lance breathed. “You’re 206.”

“I’m what?” Keith mumbled, moving to stare at the table. He didn’t want to see Lance’s expression – he was scared of what it might be.

“You were in room 206 your freshman year, weren’t you?” Keith wondered how the hell Lance could possibly know that, and it must have shown in his face because Lance elaborated. “During RA training over the summer, one of the things we did was learn what not to do. The biggest one was 206 – we were told how a guy had come back to his room to find his roommate kissing another guy.”

Keith waved off Lance’s retelling – he remembered it well enough. The comments. The malicious pranks. The RA who just wanted to be everyone’s friend and therefore did nothing.

“If – if it helps,” Lance continued after a moment. “Your story has saved at least one other. One of the RAs that trained me over the summer said that because she learned the 206 story she was able to catch it happening on her floor before it got out of hand.”

That… actually did help Keith. His fists unclenched and he wiped his palms on his jeans. He still couldn’t bring himself to look up, though.

“I’m bi,” Lance said, sounding as though he was commenting on the weather. That made Keith look up. Lance shrugged. “So, you know, you’re not alone.”

Keith nodded and excused himself, quickly walking to the bathroom. Once safely locked inside a stall, Keith let out a breath and leaned against the door. He hadn’t even expressly told Colleen and Sam about his sexuality (even though they probably had figured it out) but here he was blurting that he’s gay to a man he only just realized was a friend.

Keith let himself smile and let out a small laugh. Shiro would be proud of him – Pidge too. The only problem was Keith was in danger of developing a crush on Lance and they would be insufferable if they ever found that out.


	10. Laugh

After Keith ran away to the bathroom, Lance leaned back in his seat and let out a breath that he didn’t realize he’d been holding. The more he learned about Keith the gladder he was that he’d taken the effort to become his friend. The man had been through a lot in his life and he hadn’t even graduated college yet. Lance felt like he’s handled the revelations of the afternoon in the best way possible – basically a way that convinced Keith that Lance really was a friend and wasn’t scared off easily.

Lance could hardly believe that just six hours ago he was busy making soup for a friend that he thought was sick. Life was strange sometimes.

Their cookie sundae arrived right before Keith returned to the table. Lance noticed that his eyes were slightly puffy and red, so he asked about the motorcycle in order to get Keith’s mind off their earlier conversation. Keith slowly started to relax and smile again, and Lance learned that Keith’s bike was a Ducati 848 and that he’d started building it with his dad, finishing it with Shiro’s help in high school. It had only taken him one try to get his motorcycle license while it had taken three attempts for his normal driver’s license. Lance laughed at that and shared that he needed two tries for that one.

As they walked back to the hotel, Keith’s phone rang and he informed Lance that it was his brother as he picked up. Lance didn’t listen in, instead choosing to watch how Keith relaxed when talking to his brother.

Then Keith held out the phone to Lance. “Would you say hi so that Shiro can hear for himself that I’m not making you up?”

Lance took the phone with a grin. “Hello, Keith’s brother. This is Lance, a very not-made-up person.”

The voice on the other end laughed. “Hi Lance, this is Shiro. I just wanted to thank you for joining Keith this weekend. I really appreciate you doing this.”

“It’s not a problem,” Lance assured Shiro. “I’m glad to help. Now, Keith looks like he wants his phone back. Bye!”

Lance handed Keith his phone back and Keith gave his brother a grunt. “There, see? I’m not lying to you.”

Lance couldn’t help but laugh at that. What had Keith done before that would give his brother cause to doubt that Lance was real? Keith scowled at him as he continued talking to his brother. Lance was seeing what stars he could find as the conversation wound down.

“It’s really fine – good luck, let me know how it goes. Yeah, I’ll tell them. Love you too.” Keith hung up and sighed as he walked through the door Lance was holding open. Once inside the safety of their room, Lance kicked off his shoes and sprawled across his bed. It was getting late and he thought about getting ready to sleep but that would require getting up and the hotel bed was comfy. He was debating just how much he’d hate himself in the morning if he slept in his jeans when Keith’s voice cut through his drowsy thoughts.

“Hey, can you send me Hunk’s number?”

All Lance could do was blink for a moment – all thoughts of sleep suddenly gone. A feeling he refused to acknowledge as jealousy ate at his stomach and it took a great deal of effort to sound calm. “Uh, sure? Why?”

“Pidge has a biology question and I’m exactly zero help there.”

Lance breathed out in what he wouldn’t admit was relief and reached down to see if he could pull his phone out of his pocket without getting up. He couldn’t, so he rolled over to try and get a better angle but ended up rolling right off the bed. “Mierda,” he muttered, still struggling to get his phone.

Then there was a sound that made his muscles switch to auto-pilot as his brain self-destructed. Their friendship was fairly young, but Lance was realizing that he’d never heard Keith laugh. Sure, the man had chuckled before but the full laugh that was coming from the other bed made Lance’s lips curl up in a smile. Keith had a really nice laugh – and if Lance wasn’t using his current position to hide his very warm face he would have enjoyed getting to see what Keith looked like when he laughed like that. He sent Hunk’s number to Keith, then sent a message to Hunk himself.

 **Lance**  
>SOS  
>HELP

 **Hunk  
** >What’s wrong??

 **Lance  
** >His laugh! It’s so pure and lovely.

 **Hunk  
** >Jesus, don’t scare me like that.

 **Lance  
** >Oh, please. If it was an actual emergency I would have called you.

 **Hunk  
** >Good. But what’s so bad about Keith having a nice laugh?

 **Lance  
** >I’M DYING THAT’S WHAT

 **Hunk**  
>I forgot what you’re like when you actually like someone.  
>It’s cute.

 **Lance  
** >I’M DEAD HUNK IT’S NOT CUTE

 **Hunk  
** >Calm down with the caps lock, buddy.

 **Lance**  
>Sorry.  
>Also, apparently Pidge has a bio question so I gave Keith your number to give to her.

 **Hunk  
** >Ok, thanks! Sleep well.

 **Lance  
** >You too <3

Lance decided that he was in control enough to get up and was surprised to see Keith lounging with a book. “Are you not tired yet?”

Keith looked up and shook his head. “I can’t sleep on these nights. Let me know if the light bothers you.”

“I’m a deep sleeper,” Lance assured him, pulling a toothbrush and pajamas out of his bag. “I’ll be fine.”

Keith nodded and returned his attention to his book. As Lance went through his bedtime routine, he found himself wondering what had happened to Keith’s parents. From how Keith was acting, Lance figured that it wasn’t a recent event but he was obviously still affected by it. Lance was still musing as he fell asleep.

The next morning, Lance woke up from an unsettling dream to an empty room. Feeling uneasy because of the dream and having no idea where Keith disappeared to, Lance didn’t get up right away. Instead he focused on calming his breathing and remembering that it was just a dream. His family was fine, his friends were fine, Keith didn’t hate him. At least, he was fairly sure that Keith didn’t hate him – the man still hadn’t reappeared.

He didn’t have much time to wonder, though, because it wasn’t even five minutes later that the door opened and Keith was back. “Welcome back!” Lance greeted him, sitting up and raising his arms.

Keith raised an eyebrow and smirked but didn’t say anything until he’d gathered a change of clothes. “There’s breakfast downstairs, I’m going to take a quick shower.”

Lance nodded, belatedly realizing that his hands were still above his head and dropping them as the bathroom door closed. The sight of Keith after a run was something else – his hair was pulled back, his face was flushed, and his workout clothes showed off his muscles. Add that to the new side of Keith that Lance was getting to know as he joined this trip to his parents’ graves and Lance was definitely in trouble.

Keith was silent through breakfast so Lance talked to him once they had taken their things back to the car. Keith got in the driver’s seat since he knew where he was going, so Lance kept up a steady stream of chatter to help Keith take his mind off of where they were headed. “You know, now that I’ve seen that you can pull your hair back like that I believe your hair is officially a mullet.” Keith didn’t say anything, but Lance saw his lips twitching so he continued. “I have to admit, I thought something was off about it when I first met you but now I feel comfortable calling it what it is.”

“It just grows this way – not a mullet?” Keith defended himself with a small grin. Lance celebrated internally – mission accomplished. “Also, the first time we met I was half under Pidge’s futon so there’s no way you could have known what my hair looked like.”

Lance couldn’t help but be flattered that Keith remembered their actual first meeting. He was ready to keep going but then they made a turn and Lance saw the sign – Oak Woods Cemetery. They had arrived.

Keith had gone silent and Lance felt that it would be strange to talk so he stayed quiet too. They were along one fence when Keith stopped the car and got out, grabbing a ratty cloth from his bag. Lance had a moment to stress that he hadn’t brought flowers as he followed Keith on foot, but Keith didn’t have anything either. They arrived at a plain marker and Lance read the names. Akira Shirogane and Min-Ji Kyeong. They had died eleven years earlier – Lance did the math and realized that Keith would have been ten years old. Keith sat down with the cloth and that’s then Lance’s brain made the connection – Keith cleaned the marker rather than bring flowers. He hadn’t moved to start, so Lance took the cloth from his hands and started scrubbing off the mud and bird crap and whatever else had accumulated since last year. Then Keith spoke.

“Ohayō, eomma and appa,” he said softly. Lance didn’t understand the language, so he just listened to the rhythm of the words as he continued cleaning. He caught names, including his own, and smiled at the fact that Keith wanted to tell his parents about Lance.

He finished cleaning before Keith was done talking, so he walked the cloth back to the car. As he returned, he paused a moment on the path Keith looked serene in the morning light and Lance had his phone out to take a picture before he’d even thought much about it. The he walked forward and sat next to Keith until his friend was ready to leave.

It was around noon when that time came – they’d been there for two and a half hours and Lance hadn’t said a thing. He didn’t want to give a bad impression, so when Keith got up Lance hung back.

“Hey,” he started softly. “This is Lance. I just wanted to say that you have a great son and I’m glad that he’s my friend.” It felt odd to speak in English when Keith hadn’t, so even though he had no idea if Keith’s parents knew Spanish he switched languages anyway. “Y me encanta a su hijo. Él es un hombre que le importan mucho a sus amigos y tiene amigos fantásticos. Espero que lo sepan.” He paused a moment and felt a warmth that he couldn’t quite explain. He took that as affirmation. “Bueno. Espero que descansan bien.”

With that done, Lance felt a bit lighter as he walked back to the car. He could get them back to school from there, so he took the driver’s seat and stopped by McDonald’s for lunch (despite Keith’s protests) before getting back on the highway.

Keith was quiet, and Lance gave him until the state border before he’d had enough. “So, my mulleted friend, got any plans for Thanksgiving?”

Keith responded with “It’s not a mullet,” which wasn’t an answer but Lance was glad that he spoke.

Lance shook his head. “Yeah, and denial is not just a river in Egypt. But you didn’t answer my question – what are you doing for Thanksgiving?”

Lance glanced over to see Keith shrug. “I dunno. The Holts are visiting extended family and Shiro’s got plans with his girlfriend. I’ll just be here, probably playing video games or something.”

Lance nodded.  “That does sound fun. But, man, you haven’t lived until you’ve had to deal with a large family during a holiday. You should visit my family for Thanksgiving – then you’ll get it.”

Keith didn’t respond right away, so Lance looked over to see his wide-eyed look. Lance’s movement spurred Keith to speak. “I – I couldn’t just randomly show up.”

Lance shook his head. “My family likes new people. Hunk always comes over since it would be hard for him to get back to Hawaii. That’s a lot of flying for not a lot of break. So you won’t be the only non Aguilar Gonzales there.”

Keith still didn’t say anything, but this time Lance let him have his silence.

“If… if you’re sure I won’t be a burden,’ he said softly. Lance waited. “Then that would be nice.”

Lance smiled broadly. “Awesome, it’ll be great!” He chose the wrong moment to look over, though, because what he saw nearly made him swerve off the highway. Keith was smiling. Well and truly smiling. He even had dimples – how was that fair?

Thankfully, Keith didn’t notice how he’d fried Lance’s brain – he’d turned to look out the other window. Lance took one breath to compose himself before he started talking again. “Mamá is going to dote on you – she’ll think you’re too skinny and try to force-feed you. My youngest sister, however, will love you. She’s quiet and reads a lot and you’re quiet and read a lot. You’ll be perfect together.”

Keith laughed at that, so Lance hoped that he was feeling better and drew him into a conversation. They spent the rest of the drive talking, and Lance insisted on giving Keith a hug when he dropped him off.

“Thanks for coming with me,” Keith said softly during the hug.

Lance squeezed tighter for a moment before releasing his friend. “Thanks for letting me. Have a good rest of your weekend!”

Keith smiled back, his full smile, and Lance drove away to hide his red face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance's Spanish conversation with Keith's parents:  
> "And I love your son. He's a man who cares a lot about his friends and he has some fantastic friends. I hope you know that."  
> "Good. I hope you're resting well."
> 
> I minored in Spanish, but I don't pretend to be a native speaker.
> 
> And there's art that's been made specifically for this fic, but before I even talked with those artists I saw [this art by Elentori](https://elentori-art.tumblr.com/post/157543323797/i-just-wanted-to-give-keith-a-ducati) and I knew what Keith's bike was going to be.


	11. Family

Once he was back in his apartment, Keith decided that his bag didn’t need to be unpacked just yet and opted instead to sprawl face-down on his couch. Visiting his parents always left him eager to avoid all human contact.

Pidge, it seemed, had other ideas.

He had given her a key so he shouldn’t have been surprised that she would eventually just let herself in. He just hadn’t expected her this evening.

“Ok, I brought chips and dip and cookie dough. Let’s liberate the galaxy.”

Keith merely rolled his head to uncover one eye. “Who said anything about liberation?”

Pidge just shrugged as she turned on his PS4. “Then we’ll conquer it. Here’s the tub of dough, I’ll grab us spoons and you get the game started.”

Keith recognized Pidge’s gesture and sat up to get the game started. She had seen him and Shiro return from visiting their parents enough times to know how Keith tended to deal. And by deal, he meant suppress all feelings and wallow until it was returned to its usual home at the back of his mind. This time, it seemed, she was having none of that.

Through the evening, she kept up a steady stream of insults hurled at friend and foe alike on the screen. After a few rounds Keith joined in, and they spent the evening in a companionable shouting match at the screen before they both crashed on the couch.

Keith woke up first the next morning and moved to let Pidge finish her sleep laying down on the couch. When he looked at his phone, Keith was admittedly surprised to see a text from Lance.

 **Lance**  
>Hey, I just wanted to tell you that I enjoyed getting to spend time with you this weekend. Even if it was a road trip for a sad reason. And if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m always willing to listen.  
>Anyways, I hope got some sleep and have a good Sunday!

Keith couldn’t help the grin that formed as he read the texts. It had been nice to have someone along. He’d never had a friend of his own that he wanted to introduce to his parents. It was a good feeling.

Once Pidge woke up, they shot some more stormtroopers and ate some of Lance’s soup before Pidge had to return to her homework. Keith drove her back, and the sight of the building reminded Keith that he hadn’t responded to Lance. To make sure he didn’t forget, Keith quickly took out his phone to type a reply.

 **Keith  
** >Thanks, Lance.

It felt like the understatement of the century, but hopefully Lance understood.

And he seemed to. Through the next week, Lance continued to show up in the library while Keith was working and sat near him but didn’t ask him to talk. He told stories and listened if Keith chimed in but didn’t press him to say anything at all. Which Keith appreciated immensely.

He hadn’t told Pidge his new Thanksgiving plans, a fact that he didn’t realize until the Sunday before break. He was meeting her for their weekly dinner when Lance appeared as well.

“Hey, Keith!” he greeted. Pidge looked at Keith in anticipation, but he didn’t know why Lance was there either so they both looked to Lance in confusion.

“What time is your last class on Tuesday? I’m done at 1:20 but Hunk won’t be done till 2:20 so we’ll leave at 2:30 unless you have a class that goes later.”

“Oh yeah,” Keith replied, remembering his weekend invite. “I’m done at 12:20 so 2:30 is fine by me.”

“Sweet!” Lance grinned. “I’ll pick you both up since you live in the same building. See you later!”

Keith nodded and waved as he turned with Pidge to head to the dining hall.

“What was that?” Pidge asked as they started walking.

“Oh, Lance invited me over to his family’s house for Thanksgiving.”

Pidge punched him in the arm. “What?”

Keith shrugged. “He asked me what I was doing and Shiro’s busy and you’re busy so my answer was nothing. He said I could go to his place with him and Hunk.”

Pidge shook her head. “And how long have you liked him?”

Keith missed a step off a curb and stumbled for a moment. “I – what?”

She gave him a Look. “You’ve got a sappy smile as you’ve been talking about him. How long has it been?”

Keith thought about it as they swiped their IDs and picked food. He’d appreciated Lance’s looks for a while now – he wasn’t blind. But when had aesthetic appreciation turned into a crush? As he thought about it, no specific instance came to mind. Rather, he thought about Lance entertaining him during boring shifts at the library, Lance’s face lighting up and arms waving wildly when he told a story, Lance wanting to know about Keith’s passions as well. Lance making his mom’s soup when he thought Keith was sick, Lance going on a last-minute trip to visit Keith’s parents, Lance taking the time to become friends at Keith’s speed.

“I suppose it’s been coming on for a while,” Keith finally responded to Pidge when they both found a table to eat.

Pidge gave a long-suffering sigh. “You didn’t realize you were friends until he straight-up told you, and now you didn’t realize that you’ve liked him until months in. What am I going to do with you?”

Keith shrugged as he picked up a mozzarella stick. “We’ve been each other’s only friend for so long that I have just as much experience with this as you do. Which is to say none whatsoever.”

Pidge nodded. “Yeah, we’re both kinda useless. I am proud of you, though.” She smiled at him and Keith took a bite of steak to avoid having to respond.

The next day, Keith was working on his Spanish homework in the library when Lance arrived.

“Hey, Keith!” Lance greeted him brightly, sitting in his usual spot. “I forgot to tell you – make sure you bring a swimsuit.”

Keith looked up at him in utter confusion. “A what? It’s November.”

“Just trust me,” Lance replied, moving to take out his books. Keith still had questions, but it looked like Lance had work to get done so he didn’t press. That evening, he grabbed his swimsuit and gave it a confused look as he packed it into his backpack.

When Keith was done with classes the following afternoon, he had to remind himself not to go to work. Instead, he returned to his apartment to pack up the remaining things he would need for the weekend. He was a light packer, a consequence of owning a motorcycle rather than a car, so that was done quickly and he had time to kill. As he read a book, he got a text from Pidge.

 **Pidge**  
>Have a good weekend.  
>Remember my suffering when you’re sucking face with my RA.

 **Keith**  
>What the hell, Pidge?  
>1: I doubt he likes me back.  
>B: we’re going to be in his house. Where his parents live. Even if we had been dating for years I doubt there would be any sucking face going on.  
>And lastly: it’s just your grandparents.

 **Pidge**  
>YOU’VE MET MY GRANDPARENTS  
>YOU KNOW WHY I’LL BE SUFFERING

 **Keith**  
>Just say you’re Matt and run away.  
>Isn’t that what you usually do?

 **Pidge**  
>I think they’re starting to catch on to that.  
>It may not work for long.

 **Keith  
** >Then say you have homework – they’ll never know if that’s true or not.

 **Pidge  
** >But then they’ll expect me to actually work on something.

 **Keith  
** >So work on something. They won’t know if it’s actually homework or not.

 **Pidge  
** >My man, this is why you get paid the big bucks. Thanks!

Keith snorted – as if minimum wage college student pay could resemble anything close to “big bucks”. There was a knock on his door before he could respond and Hunk was smiling in his doorway.

“Hey Keith. Lance is on his way over, so I wanted to make sure that you were ready.”

Keith nodded and picked up his bag and keys. “Yup, ready to go.”

“Cool!” Hunk stepped out of the way so Keith could lock his door. They walked downstairs to where Lance was waiting. Once they were all situated, Lance hit play on his music and they were off. Hunk and Lance were immediately conversing in the front while Keith listened in from the back seat. They started off by talking about their classes, including one that they both were ready to be done with and Keith was glad that he wasn’t in. Then the conversation moved to food and Hunk wanted to make sure that his favorites would be served.

“What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food, Keith?” Hunk turned in his seat so that he could see Keith as he answered.

Keith only blinked. “I… I’m not sure. Colleen makes the best fettuccine alfredo in the world so we usually have that.”

“That sounds good,” Hunk said, smiling. “Pidge also said that her mom’s pasta sauce is the best – man, now I want to try it.”

The drive was only an hour and a half and most of it was spent talking about the food. Lance complained about the traffic and said that the drive was usually shorter but being a school break meant that the roads were clogged.

Keith hadn’t been sure what exactly he had been expecting at Lance’s family home, but it definitely wasn’t what Lance parked in front of. This house was the same size as his had been, even though Keith knew Lance had more family than he had. There was a planter near the front door and Keith assumed that what was planted there was in hibernation for the winter because it just looked like a bunch of sticks.

“Mamá, we’re here!” Lance called once they walked inside the unlocked front door.

Lance had a sister in college, and evidently she had beat them home because everyone was gathered in the family room with her. The addition of three new people, however, put a pause to that conversation as the rest of the room saw who had arrived. Lance was hugged, Hunk greeted, and Keith watched unsure of what to do.

Lance’s sister noticed him hiding at the back. “You must be Keith. I’m Carla, Lance told us that he’d bring a new friend.”

Keith nodded and shook her hand. “Yeah, that’s me. My family’s busy this weekend, so he said that I could join you all.”

Carla smiled. “We like people, you’re totally welcome here.”

Keith thanked her with a smile, and then Lance’s mom approached. “You must be Keith, I’m Esperanza. Did I just hear you say that your family is busy this weekend?”

“Yeah, my brother’s got plans with his girlfriend so I was just going to stay at school.”

If she noticed that he didn’t mention parents or anyone else, she didn’t comment on it. Instead, Keith was swept into a sudden hug and didn’t know what to do. He stiffened, but before he could do anything else she let him go and held his shoulders.

“Well, we’re glad you could join us. Lance can show you where you’ll be sleeping,” she said, pulling Lance over as well. “You boys drop your things off and then come back down,” she instructed, shooing Hunk away as well. The three of them dropped their things in one of the bedrooms. There were two twin beds and an air mattress, so Keith threw his bag on one of the beds as soon as they entered to claim it. Hunk beat out Lance in an aggressive game of Rock Paper Scissors despite Lance’s protests (“It’s my bed, Hunk! It’s my room!”) to claim the other bed and then they all returned downstairs.

For the next few hours, it was chaos in the Aguilar Gonzales household. Everyone was talking and everyone else was complaining that they couldn’t hear their conversations. Hunk was in the kitchen with Lance’s parents to prepare dinner, Lance was holding court with his brothers, and his sister was talking with his sister-in-law about her latest book.

Keith took advantage of the fact that no one was looking at him to slip away. He walked upstairs to hide in the room he’d be sleeping in, but before he got there he saw a girl with long hair in a single braid down her back – Keith assumed her to be Lance’s youngest sister – in a different room. She was sitting on the bed and reading, but she seemed to sense that he was there because she looked up when he got to the doorway. And when she looked up, Keith saw that she had the same blue eyes as Lance.

“Are you alright?” Keith asked, unsure what to think.

“Of course,” she assured him. “It’s too loud for me to read downstairs.”

Keith nodded in agreement. “It is, isn’t it?”

“Would you like to join me here?” the sister (Keith had managed to completely forget names over the past half hour) offered. “I’m not loud.”

“I’m not either,” Keith promised, agreeing and going to get his own book. They sat on the bed for another hour together, reading in companionable silence before one of Lance’s brothers appeared.

“Val, it’s time to eat. Oh, hey,” he said, evidently surprised to see Keith. “Lance was wondering where you went. Dinner’s ready.”

Val nodded and Keith followed her lead as she set her book down and followed the brother downstairs.

“Keith!” Lance greeted them. “You didn’t run away!”

“Did you think I would?” Keith asked, perplexed, but Lance didn’t respond because he was busy greeting his sister.

“Val! I’m offended that you didn’t greet me,” he said, swooping her up into his arms and drawing a giggle out of the girl. “I love your hair – I see Rapunzel is still your favorite princess. What are you reading now?”

“Harry Potter!” she told him proudly. Keith moved away to pick a seat at the table next to Hunk, who kindly started a conversation about motorcycles with him as the food was brought out of the kitchen.

The conversations around the table quieted as everyone ate, but then started back up during dessert. Keith was debating whether it would be bad manners to just leave – he wasn’t involved in any of the conversations – when Val appeared at his side.

“I usually leave now; you can come read with me again if you want.”

Keith stood immediately, grateful to have an excuse to escape the crowded room. Back upstairs, Val surprised him by snuggling into his side to read but he didn’t mind and just readjusted his arms to let her make herself comfortable. He wasn’t sure how long they were there alone, but no one came to get them before Val’s book started tilting down in her hands. Keith stuck a bookmark in it so that she wouldn’t lose her spot and gently extracted himself to let her sleep. As he left the room, Lance was walking upstairs.

“Hey man, is Val asleep?” Lance didn’t seem surprised when Keith nodded. “Ok, I’ll let mamá know. Sorry for leaving you on your own today,” Lance continued, looking sheepish. “I got kinda caught up in talking with my family and didn’t notice that you had left.”

“It’s fine,” Keith assured him. “Val and I were reading together.”

Lance smiled at that. “I knew you’d both get along. Anyways, I’m getting tired so I’m going to head to sleep. Hunk’s still downstairs if you want to go back down there.”

Keith shrugged. “I’m kinda tired as well, so I think I’ll sleep too.”

Lance nodded and claimed the bathroom first, so Keith went to grab his toothbrush and change into pajamas. They switched locations when Lance was done, and then they were laying in the dark. Keith rolled onto his back and must have made a sound when he saw the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling because Lance spoke up.

“We put those up when I was young. I shared this room with Tomás and was scared of the dark. He didn’t want a nightlight, so we got the stars instead.”

Keith hummed in response, not sure what to say, but Lance’s breathing evened out and he was asleep. Keith imagined a small Lance in his very position, scared of the monsters under his bed but taking comfort in the stars. He also tried not to find it absolutely adorable.

He failed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's art is by [PookElucy](http://pookelucy.tumblr.com/)!


	12. Thankful

Tomás and Emilio were playing a game when Lance went skidding into the family room the next day.

“Guys, the game starts in fifteen minutes! Finish your game so I can watch!” And with that he ran back out of the room. He needed to find something to wear that was close to the colors of his hockey team, the Columbus Blue Jackets. When he returned, they still hadn’t finished and there were only five minutes left so he threatened to unplug the game system. Rather than lose all of his progress, Emilio opted to save and quit properly. Lance grabbed the remote and flung himself on the couch next to Keith. Hunk appeared as Lance was switching the channels and brought snacks.

“I can’t believe I still don’t have a jersey,” Lance bemoaned as the game started. He’d found a blue shirt, but it wasn’t the right blue and he didn’t have any red. This concern would have to wait, though, because it was time for puck drop.

For the next twenty minutes of game time, Lance was in the zone. His team wasn’t the best in the league, but they were playing a team that they should be beating into the ice. So of course they weren’t. The Jackets were down a goal and the front line was sloppy. He was impressed with the goalie’s playing – he’d let in a goal but he’d had to stop many shots this period alone.

During the intermission, Lance took advantage of the fact that his team couldn’t do anything stupid that he would have to yell at them for by digging into the snacks. Hunk was describing the rules to Keith, with many a snide remark sent Lance’s way, but Lance decided to ignore those in order to help Keith understand as well. The second period was a better showing, so Lance felt comfortable breaking the spell to get his own drink rather than stay planted in his seat. It seemed to work, too – the final period resulted in two goals and a win for his team.

When they were going to sleep that night, Lance told Keith to have his swimsuit ready for the morning before he left to brush his teeth. When he returned to the room, he heard Hunk explaining to Keith.

“It’s become something of a Thanksgiving morning tradition around here to jump in the pool. Whoever lasts the longest in the cold gets dessert first.”

“Will there not be enough for everyone?”

“Oh, no there will be plenty. It’s just–”

“It’s the principle of the matter!” Lance insisted, jumping into the conversation. “I can’t let my brothers get the pie before me – it’s my favorite!” The other two shared amused looks that Lance chose to ignore as he crawled under the blanket on his air mattress.

When everyone gathered in the family room the next morning, Hunk bowed out along with Lance’s parents – stating that they needed to make sure the food was coming along. Val hadn’t even put on a swimsuit – instead, she was curled up on the couch with her book and Julia sat next to her. There was a layer of frost on the ground, so Lance shot a glance at Keith to make sure that he really wanted to join his family in their weird tradition. Keith gave him a challenging look back, so Lance figured he knew what he was doing and lined up with the others as they waited for Lance’s mom to start the stopwatch and release them all.

She opened the door and Keith rushed out into the cold with Lance, Tomás, Emilio, and Carla. They all ran quickly and all cannonballed into the water at the same time. Lance immediately felt his lungs hurt – it was really cold. Tomás was the first out, Emilio and Lance claiming that he’d been getting soft in his old age. Then it was Carla, and Emilio left soon after with much complaining about the temperature. This left Lance and Keith, and Lance wasn’t about to get out first. He wasn’t entirely sure that he could feel his feet anymore, but Keith was giving him a look that said he wouldn’t back down. And that did Lance in. He had to get out to avoid kissing Keith’s smiling face, and in doing so he forfeited his title.

But the proud look Keith wore as Lance’s family congratulated him made it worth it.

 As the winner, Keith also got first dibs on the shower to warm up so Lance wrapped himself in a blanket and sidled up next to Hunk so see what his friend was making. The smells of the kitchen comforted him – it smelled like family and Lance couldn’t help the smile that took over his face. As he was trying to steal Hunk’s warmth, however, his friend turned to confront him.

“You know, I don’t think your crush is as one-sided as you seem to believe.”

Lance squawked and looked around to make sure none of his siblings, or worse – Keith, were eavesdropping. “Hunk! You can’t just say things like that in my house! Who knows who might hear you!”

Hunk shrugged, much more calm about this than Lance was. “I’m just letting you know. Now don’t get pool water in my potatoes.”

Lance huffed but moved back so that he didn’t drip into the pot.

After he’d had his turn in the shower, Lance helped set the table and got drinks for everyone. Carla and Emilio had planned out a seating chart, so Lance placed the drinks at the appropriate chairs as his mom and Hunk moved the food from the kitchen to the table as well. Their old dining table strained more and more under the weight of the food each year, but it hadn’t failed them yet.

Once everyone was corralled into the dining room and seated as their assigned spot, Lance’s dad said grace and it was time for everyone to say what they were thankful for.

“Oh, start here,” Julia insisted, indicating Lance next to her. “I’m going to need some time to think.”

Lance obliged and started the rounds. “I’m thankful for my family and friends and that my hall of freshmen haven’t done anything so stupid that I’ve been kicked out of being an RA.”

Everyone laughed and Hunk was next. Family and friends were a common theme among those seated at the table, and then it came to Keith.

“New friends,” he said simply. Lance beamed, knowing that he was a large part of that and feeling proud.

When it finally got back to Julia, she looked radiant. “Well, I’m thankful for my family and for Tomás, and this year I’m especially thankful for the baby that will be part of this family come June.”

The reaction was about what would be expected. Lance’s mom gasped, Carla and Emilio shouted, Lance and his dad both threw their hands up in celebration, and Val had a sweet smile that showed her excitement to be an aunt. Even Hunk and Keith got into the mood, smiles on both faces. Lance thought that this might be turning into the best Thanksgiving ever.


	13. Overheard

Keith couldn’t help the smile that took over his face at Julia’s news – the mood was contagious. He could easily picture the doting that the newest member of the Agular Gonzales family would grow up with. It made him miss his brother, but he didn’t want to interrupt anything that he and Allura would be doing so he didn’t text or call without first getting a message from them.

That evening, Lance’s family sat back at the table after the dishes had been cleared armed with newspaper ads and computers. Keith watched them in fascination for a few minutes before he turned to Hunk for an explanation that wouldn’t be coming from the crew at the table.

“They do Black Friday,” Hunk said, looking up from his Sudoku and seeing Keith’s confusion. “They’re planning where they want to go shopping tomorrow.”

Keith pulled a face. “Does everyone do that?”

“Oh goodness no,” Hunk assured Keith. “I wouldn’t go out in that madness unless you paid me.”

“Thank God. The Holts all go out but Shiro and I prefer to just watch football.”

“I got you covered,” Hunk said with a smile. “I’ll be here all day – I’ll watch football with you. But Pidge does Black Friday shopping?”

Keith nodded. “Yeah. Computer stuff.”

Hunk “Aah”-ed in understanding and they enjoyed listening to the planning coming from the dining table.

The next morning, Keith and Hunk bid a sleepy “Good luck” and “Have fun” to Lance when he got up early and got an extra four hours of sleep before they got up themselves. And when they did get up, they found that they were the only ones in the house. Hunk said that some of the family would likely be back around lunchtime so they had some cereal and watched the sports that were on TV.

As lunchtime drew near, Hunk rose to start making food. Keith wasn’t sure if his help would be needed, but he followed just in case. When Hunk saw that Keith had joined him in the kitchen, he gave a wide smile. “Hey, Keith! Want to help?”

Keith smiled back. “If you want help.”

“Sure! You can put the quesadillas together – I’ll get the pan heated up.”

As Keith helped Hunk make quesadillas for the family, they chatted and Keith got to know Hunk better. He really was having a good time this weekend.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to last.

Saturday was a relaxing day. Keith did some reading with Val for most of the day while the rest of the household enjoyed their own pursuits. In the evening, Keith was making his way to the kitchen for some water when he heard voices coming out. He wouldn’t have paused to listen except for the fact that he heard his name.

“…friends with Keith?” It was Lance’s older brother talking.

“We’ve been friends for a couple months now,” Lance replied. “He’s friends with one of the freshmen on my floor. He seemed a little lonely, so I wanted to help.”

“Oh, I gotcha,” Tomás said, smile evident in his voice. “He’s another one of your charity cases.”

Keith didn’t think people actually felt comments like a slap to the face, that was just a phrase in books. Tomás’s comment, however, made Keith take a step back and he hissed in pain. That wasn’t how Lance saw him, was it? Lance wasn’t refuting his brother, though, so Keith made a hasty retreat back to Val’s room and resumed reading.

He knew it was too good to be true.


	14. Silence

Lance was shocked into silence at his brother’s comment. He remembered when he was younger and wanted to adopt every stray animal that he saw. His parents called him kind-hearted, his older siblings joked that he liked to find charity cases. He hadn’t heard them say anything like that in years, and he couldn’t believe that Tomás would bring that back up now – and about a person too!

“It’s not like that at all,” Lance said coldly once he could speak again. “Keith is an amazing friend and I’m glad that he let me become his.”

He didn’t wait around for Tomás to respond, walking out of the kitchen. He was angry at his brother and didn’t want to take that out on anyone else, so he made his way upstairs quickly. Thankfully, he saw Keith in Val’s room – he wouldn’t have heard Tomás. Lance nodded to himself in satisfaction, retreating to his bed and falling asleep before Keith or Hunk returned.

Which meant that he woke up before either. He got up as quietly as he could manage on an air mattress and went downstairs to have breakfast with his family. Unfortunately, Tomás was there but so were his parents and Carla so he could avoid Tomás. He was still angry.

Keith looked low when he entered the kitchen a little later, but Lance just assumed that he was tired. Then he didn’t look at Lance all morning, but Lance figured that he was thinking about school again now that the weekend was almost over.

Lance knew there was something wrong, however, when Keith said good bye to Lance’s family and immediately climbed into the back seat and put his headphones in while Lance was still loading his things into the boot. Lance cocked his head, but he didn’t have time to dwell at that moment because he needed to say good bye to his family as well.

“See you for Christmas,” he told all of them, giving an especially tight hug to his mom.

“Good luck on your finals!” his dad told him. Lance waved as he climbed into the driver’s seat and made sure that Hunk was ready to go. They waved to Lance’s family, and then it was back to school.

Hunk knew something. Lance knew that Hunk knew something, but he wouldn’t say anything. Every time Lance tried to talk to Keith, Hunk would steer the conversation away to something else and not let Lance get a word in edgewise to Keith.

Lance narrowed his eyes at his friend, but the drive was only an hour so he couldn’t interrogate properly. Once he dropped them off and returned to his room, though, the texts began.

 **Lance**  
>What is going on?  
>You know something.  
>Don’t deny it.

 **Hunk  
** >I don’t deny it.

 **Lance  
** >Then why won’t you tell me why Keith won’t talk to me?

 **Hunk  
** >It’s not my place. I shouldn’t even have been listening.

 **Lance  
** >Listening to what??

 **Hunk**  
>This one is on you, buddy.  
>I want to help, but you need to get this one on your own.

Lance growled in frustration and was about to just call Hunk when his door flew open and Pidge barged into his room. She looked livid, and Lance was immediately nervous.

“What did you do to him?” she demanded. There was no need to specify who she was referring to.

Lance threw his hands up dramatically. “I don’t know! He wouldn’t talk to me all day!”

“Hunk said something about a conversation last night,” Pidge continued, not relenting her accusatory glare. “And this morning I woke up to a text from him that said he wasn’t up for dinner today. It’s steak and mozzarella night, Lance!”

Lance frowned. A conversation last night? He glanced at his phone where his conversation with Hunk was still pulled up. But he hadn’t even talked to Keith last night, he’d been talking to his brother about… about…

“Coño,” Lance breathed, the pieces falling into place with a dull think. He’d been talking to his brother about Keith and Tomás had made that stupid charity case comment. Lance was fairly sure he hadn’t, but what if Keith had heard after all? Worse – what if Keith thought that was true?

“I need to talk to him,” he said, grabbing his phone. Before he could even fully pull up his conversation with Keith, however, Pidge snatched his phone out of his hands.

“I can’t let you do that,” she said, holding his phone out of his reach. The anger in her eyes had faded, but only slightly. “If you text him now you’ll lose him forever. And I can’t let you do that to him.”

Lance could only nod. “Then what do I do?”

Pidge shrugged. “You’re on your own for that one. Just know that he’s my best friend in the whole world.”

With that warning, she fixed him with one last glare and handed back his phone before leaving the room. He looked down at it and saw his last text to Keith with a sigh before returning to Hunk.

 **Lance**  
>So, I think I know what you’re talking about now.  
>Please tell me Pidge is on her way to his place now.

 **Hunk  
** >She is. You ok?

 **Lance  
** >No. But I hope I will be.


	15. Shovel

He was both glad and annoyed that Pidge had shown up. Annoyed because it meant that his acting skills were getting rusty. But glad because, if he was being honest with himself, he didn’t actually want to be alone.

“Don’t blame me when you get salmonella,” she said by way of greeting. “You need to find a healthier comfort food.”

Keith snorted. “As if yours is any better – at least I’m not allergic to mine.”

Pidge stuck out her tongue as she grabbed spoons and sat at the table with him. They both had homework to do, so they sat in companionable silence and listened to the music coming from Keith’s laptop. It got late before either of them realized and Keith got his spare blankets to make up the couch before Pidge could ask. She nodded her thanks as she moved over and quickly fell asleep. Keith allowed himself a small smile. He really was thankful for a friend like Pidge.

The following day, Keith really wasn’t sure what to do when Lance walked in to the library during his shift. He didn’t want to bring up what he’d overheard, but he also now knew that Lance was only there because he felt bad.

Even with his inner debate, Keith was surprised when Lance didn’t say anything. He just nodded to Keith and sat at his usual spot to work. Tuesday and Wednesday were the same – just a nod and a smile. By Thursday evening, Keith decided to just put him out of his misery.

“I heard you talking with your brother,” Keith told Lance. There was no surprise on his face, so Keith knew that Lance knew what he was talking about. “I’m no one’s charity case. I don’t want your pity.” He looked down, listening for footsteps walking away.

Lance sighed. “ _De madre, Tomás,_ ” he said softy. Keith wasn’t sure what Lance’s mom had to do with anything, but he didn’t look up to try and find out. “If I promise you that’s not what I think, would you believe me?” Keith could only shrug, too drained to even try and come up with a response.

Lance grunted. “Fine, I guess I’ll just have to prove it to you,” he declared, moving to sit next to Keith. Keith prided himself with the fact that he neither leaned in to embrace the guy nor did he lean away. “Starting now when I’m going to help you study for the Spanish test that I remember you mentioning you have tomorrow.” Keith still didn’t know what to think, but he was glad for the study help all the same.

The next day, Shiro texted while Keith was at work.

 **Shiro  
** >Ok, what’s up?

 **Keith**  
>…? I’m at work.  
>What’s up with you?

 **Shiro**  
>I’m sitting here unsure whether I should be worried or offended that it’s been a week and my darling little brother hasn’t so much as asked how my weekend was.  
>Allura said yes, by the way.

 **Keith  
** >Oh, fuck, that’s right! How’d it go?

 **Shiro  
** >Well I just told you that she said yes, so it obviously wasn’t too bad.

 **Keith  
** >Did she cry?

 **Shiro  
** >No, but I don’t think she’s stopped smiling.

 **Keith  
** >Did you cry?

 **Shiro  
** >No.

 **Keith  
** >You know I do have her phone number, right?

 **Shiro  
** >Ok, fine, I did.

 **Keith**  
>Aww, you’re adorable.  
>But seriously – I’m so excited for you both!

 **Shiro  
** >Thanks! But back to you now.

 **Keith  
** >I’m fine, Shiro.

 **Shiro  
** >I don’t believe you.

 **Keith  
** >You should.

 **Shiro  
** >I have to get back to work so you’re saved from an interrogation for now. But if you haven’t told me by Christmas then I WILL find out then.

 **Keith  
** >Go back to work. Allura shouldn’t have to take care of you and your expensive habits alone.

He couldn’t help the smile on his face – he really was excited for his brother. He was so happy with Allura; Keith knew that this day would come eventually.

He’d been absorbed with his conversation with Shiro and hadn’t noticed Lance’s arrival, so when he looked up and saw Lance he was surprised. Evidently he still hadn’t given up on Keith. It might have been the residual happiness from talking to Shiro, but that thought made Keith smile. Lance gave him a startled smile back and Keith quickly ducked his head, reminding himself of the conversation he’d heard. He couldn’t let himself continue to fall for the man. But when he couldn’t get Lance out if his head, moving on was a difficult thing indeed.

Finals descended on campus and Keith found it easier to ignore Lance as he studied. His calculus final was last – he had until Saturday morning to prepare. Pidge’s biology final was at the same time, so the evening before he picked up ice cream and rode to her dorm.

 **Keith  
** >Let me in. And take your drugs.

Her hair looked like she’d been running her hands through it all day, but she did light up when she saw the ice cream. Once they made it to her room, she reached for it but Keith held it out of her reach.

“Did you take your drugs? I didn’t buy that nasty lactose-free stuff – finals week calls for the real deal.”

She only nodded impatiently and continued to grab the air at the bag Keith held. He relented and handed her the carton, taking out the spoons as well. Only one bite in and Keith saw his first real smile from her in a week. Comfort food did wonders.

They worked and ate while listening to Pidge’s music, the sky outside darkening before they realized how late it was. When Pidge yawned for the third time in a minute, Keith suggested that they call it quits for the evening. He knew that it was a sign of how out of it she already was that she didn’t argue the point, only waved at her roommate’s bed lazily.

“Linda’s already gone for break, so you can crash here if you don’t want to drive back,” she offered, grabbing her toothbrush and exiting the room. Keith wasn’t sure what to do. It wouldn’t be too weird to sleep in someone else’s bed – rather the knowledge that Lance was only a few rooms away made Keith’s stomach curl in a way that he’d almost convinced himself was over. He really was tired, though, so he decided to just sleep and worry about it later. He made sure to set an alarm on his phone and said good night to Pidge before he was out.

It was a night of blissfully dreamless sleep before the alarm jolted him awake. He heard Pidge swearing as she rolled out of her own bed and was debating whether it would be remarkably pathetic to ask Pidge to make sure the coast was clear so he could go to the bathroom when he heard her make a surprised noise. He rolled over and saw her with a piece of paper in one hand and a parking pass in the other. When she saw him looking, she handed both over.

 _In case you have an overnight guest during the week, you’ll want this._ Keith recognized the pass as being the one that was required to park in the lot outside the dorm when it wasn’t the weekend. He also recognized the handwriting.

“Put it on your bike – it’s obviously meant for you.” Pidge was looking at the pass, but Keith couldn’t quite identify that look.

“But why would he give me one of these?” Keith retorted. “He knows our schedule – he knows I’m not usually here during the week.”

Pidge just shrugged. “I dunno, but you’re the only one who visits me and I don’t have a car. And it’s almost time for us to get walking to pre-exam breakfast. You ready?”

Ah, yes – there were more pressing issues to be worried about. Like his calculus final. Keith stuffed his things into his bag and nodded, trying not to let his nerves overtake him. If he could just get through this exam, he’d be free…

And, miraculously, that time did come. As he exited the exam hall, Keith felt freer than he had in weeks. Sam, Colleen, and Matt were all driving to pick up Pidge for break, so Keith met up with them to have lunch before they all drove home.

Keith was putting some clothes into a backpack when he saw the box with the jersey he’d bought for Lance. That felt like a long time ago – he’d ordered it while at Lance’s house for Thanksgiving. He wasn’t sure what to do with it – he couldn’t give it to Lance now or he’d undo all of his progress at making sure Lance didn’t feel obliged to remain his friend.

He waffled some more as he finished packing and put on his riding jacket. He grabbed his bag, and then remembered that Hunk lived a floor away. Before he could talk himself out of it, he grabbed the jersey and exited his apartment. Down one floor, he knocked on what he thought he remembered to be Hunk’s door and heard a squawk and thud. Hunk opened the door a moment later.

“Are you ok?” Keith asked, glancing into Hunk’s apartment.

“Yeah,” Hunk assured him easily. “How’d your finals go?”

“I hope pretty well,” Keith responded. “How about yours?”

“Same,” Hunk grimaced. “I hope I never have to look at another Thermo II problem in my life.” Keith smiled in empathy. “So what’s up?” Hunk continued. “You look like you’re headed out.”

Keith nodded. “I am – I just found this,” he explained, holding out the jersey. “I got it for Lance before… you know… so do you think you could give it to him? Just don’t let him know it’s from me – I don’t want him to feel like I’m trying to guilt him back into being my friend.”

Hunk looked at him but Keith kept his eyes on the jersey. “Yeah, I can do that,” Hunk said, taking it out of Keith’s hand.

Keith looked up and smiled. “Thanks, man. Have a great break!”

Hunk smiled back. “You too, Keith. Drive safe!”

Keith waved and made his way to his bike. He put on his helmet and in one swift movement was mounted with the biked turned on and he was off. Shiro lived in the same town as the Holts, so he was headed in the same direction as he knew Sam was driving his family. And Sam drove slowly.

Keith grinned. They had an hour head start, but Keith was a speed junkie and the reads weren’t too dangerous. He opened the throttle.

When he let himself into Shiro and Allura’s house, it was empty. He wasn’t sure where they might be, so he made himself comfortable on the couch and did some reading. He had just hit the climax of his story and was therefore so engrossed in the book that he didn’t notice anyone had returned until Shiro stuck a hand between the book and Keith’s face. That drew his attention out of the story and he looked up to see that both Shiro and Allura were in the room.

“Hey!” Keith greeted them, setting the book aside so he could stand up and hug them both.

“How were your finals?” Allura asked once they were all sitting.

Keith shrugged. “Not too bad, I just hope that I passed calc so I never have to take it again.”

She nodded in sympathy. “I never really liked that class either.”

Shiro shook his head at both of them. “Calc isn’t even that hard. You both should be glad that you never had to take Diff EQ.”

Allura gave an exaggerated shudder and Keith laughed. He was glad to be home.

The following morning, Keith and Shiro went for their usual run morning runs together. They ran in a comfortable silence – the only sound between them being their breathing and the pounding of their shoes against the pavement. They were about halfway through and waiting to cross a street when Shiro broke that silence.

“I haven’t forgotten, you know.”

Keith was bent in half to stretch, so he twisted his head and looked at his brother sideways. “You haven’t forgotten what?”

Even sideways Keith recognized Shiro’s ‘you aren’t getting out of this one’ look. “Thanksgiving,” he said simply, starting across the street when the light turned.

“Thanksgiving?” Keith muttered, straightening quickly to follow. What was he…

Keith slipped on ice and flailed a moment, and in that moment realization hit. He was going to have to tell Shiro about Lance. The rest of his run was spent trying to figure out just how he was should do that. Thankfully, Shiro didn’t accost him before he went upstairs for a shower. Keith took his turn after, but then he walked downstairs and there was no escape.

“So,” Shiro started, not even turning around on the couch to look at Keith. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much,” Keith responded, in a contrary mood. “What’s up with you?” He knew that he didn’t really have a choice, though, so he sat next to Shiro on the couch.

“I’m just really concerned about my idiot little brother,” Shiro replied, making himself comfortable and twisting to face Keith.

“Don’t worry about me,” Keith insisted, knowing it was futile. “It’s just a guy.”

“Boy trouble?” Shiro asked, surprised. “You haven’t had boy trouble in years – I was starting to think you’d just sworn off dating.”

Keith frowned. “Not that kind of boy trouble – we were just friends. Not dating.”

Shiro was quiet for a moment. “But you wish you were, don’t you?” he asked softly.

Keith slumped into the couch. Shiro had always been too perceptive for Keith’s preference. “Yeah,” he mumbled.

Shiro pulled Keith into a hug. “Don’t worry, it’ll work out. And if he doesn’t realize what a good thing he’s got with you, then I can always drive up and give him a nice shovel talk.” He leaned back with a wide smile.

“Oh my God, Shiro,” Keith protested. “You can’t threaten to kill every guy I talk to.”

Shiro just smirked. “I’m your big brother, it’s my job. Besides, what good is a black belt if I can’t use it to scare off guys that are unworthy of you?”

Keith snorted, but was interrupted before he could retort.

“Who’s unworthy of Keith?” Allura asked, returning from her morning gym workout.

Shiro shrugged. “Potentially some guy at school. I may need to drive up for a weekend next semester.”

Allura nodded. “Just let me know if you want any backup on that trip.”

Christmas Eve came and the Shirogane / Altea / Kyeong house was festive. Music was playing, lights were twinkling, and Shiro was attempting to guess what his gift from Keith was. This tradition was made more difficult as the evening progressed and the three of them got steadily more and more drunk.

“Allurrraaa…” Shiro implored, but Keith cut him off.

“No, no help!” He’d sent Shiro’s gift to the house so that Allura could wrap and hide it, so she knew what was inside.

“Sorry, darling,” Allura replied, her accent growing more pronounced as the alcohol flowed. “I swore that I would keep Keith’s secret.”

Shiro pouted and Keith laughed. “Just because you’re predictable doesn’t mean I am.”

Their Christmas tradition began because if they said that they always celebrated on Christmas Eve then they got more time to themselves in foster care. So that’s what they did. Every Christmas Eve, they dressed up in ugly Christmas sweaters and drank hot chocolate (spiked with Bailey’s after Shiro turned 21) and they each had to guess what their present would be. Whoever came closest first would win – they were only competing for pride points, but it meant that over the years they had become good at tailoring their guessing to whittle down the possibilities.

Keith had an especially easy time of it – Shiro got him something either aviation or motorcycle themed every year, so Keith was easily able to learn that this year was an aviation year. He doubted that Shiro would come close for his own guessing, though.

At precisely 10:34p, they started A Muppet Christmas Carol on the TV. This would take them straight through to midnight, when the present opening would occur. It was the only Christmas movie that they could both remember watching with their parents, so he held a prominent position in their Christmas traditions. And after so many years, they both knew it by heart so Shiro continued to guess despite Allura’s protests that she hadn’t had as many years with the movie and wanted to watch it.

All three of them sang along with the final song of the movie, and then it was time for gifts. Just to mess with his brother’s burning curiosity even more, Keith presented Allura with her gift first. He got her some new kickboxing gear as she had been complaining that hers was sadly worn. In return, she had gotten him a gift card so that he could finally get an e-reader and not have to carry so any books around everywhere.

Then Keith turned to Shiro. He handed over a box and received an envelope in return. He gestured for Shiro to open first, and had the satisfaction of seeing his brother’s jaw drop in total surprise and joy when he saw his new camera. Wordlessly he looked at Keith, who shrugged.

“You were telling me how much you like that photography class you took and I haven’t heard you talk about anything but Allura like that in a long time,” Keith explained. “So I want to help you enjoy that some more.”

Shiro was still speechless but he did pull Keith into a tight hug. Keith was glad to see that Shiro was so happy with his present. His turn was next and when he opened the envelope he was greeted by a travel voucher and a note.

 _Keith,_  
_I know how much you want to see the world, so use this to take a friend on a trip for fun before you get sucked into the working world._  
_I love you, baby bro._  
_-Shiro_

“Holy God, Shiro,” Keith breathed. He looked at the vouchers and choked – he had enough money to buy him and a friend a plane ticket anywhere in the world.

He looked up to see Shiro smiling at him. “I told you it was aviation themed,” he said as Keith flung himself at his brother. They hugged tight, and then Keith left for his room to give Shiro and Allura some time to themselves. He saw that he had a text and wondered who that could be from. His brother was downstairs, so was Allura, and the Holts always went to sleep early because they got up early Christmas Day before Keith, Shiro, and Allura headed over.

It might have been the generous amount of Bailey’s coursing through his system, but he couldn’t help the warmth and smile that erupted when he saw the sender.

 **Lance  
** >Merry Christmas, Keith! I hope you’re having a great break with your brother.

It was sent right at midnight, which implied that Lance had stayed up just to text him. And others, he allowed, but it hadn’t been a generic group text – this one was just to Keith.

When he first thought about the trip he could take thanks to Shiro, Keith had thought about how he and Pidge would have fun. But now, there was a different face in the airplane seat next to him. Maybe he could give friendship with Lance another shot.

 **Keith  
** >Merry Christmas to you too, Lance.


	16. Christmas

This was one of the hardest things Lance had ever done. He had been ready to ask Keith out on a date, but Pidge’s warning after Thanksgiving had been crystal clear. He needed to take his time and do this right.

He got a response to his midnight Merry Christmas text, so Lance let himself hope. Maybe his chance wasn’t completely gone. That thought lent some extra warmth to his usual Christmas morning smile as his younger siblings woke him up. They always came to him first, and he would keep them entertained until his parents woke up. The rule was that they all had to wait until their parents were ready before they could descend on the tree. Val was never one to have restless energy – she just read as she waited with them. Emilio tried to act like he was growing out of the phase where he had to be contained but was all talk, along with Carla. Even Tomás and his wife joined in on the sibling bonding as they all waited for the call.

It finally came, and Emilio was off like a shot, followed closely by Carla. Tomás and Julia weren’t far behind, and normally Lance would be right there with them but he saw Val. She calmly finished a section of her book and set it down, and Lance waited to walk down with her. She wouldn’t understand and Lance wasn’t even sure he could explain it to himself, but it felt important.

By the time they made it to the tree, Emilio had sorted all of the presents into piles and was tearing into his own. Lance and Val sat down to join the fray.

The morning was a mess of opening gifts and exclaiming over what was received, and then having to clean up the wrapping paper carnage. As the kids cleaned, Lance’s mom started on breakfast – her special French toast. As he ate his food, Lance’s mind drifted from his family’s chatter back to Keith.

Lance had gotten Keith a parking pass, with the plan to ask him out and present that so that he could come and go as he pleased. Instead he gave it to Pidge with the assumption that she would pass it along. Hunk had called him silly, but then Keith had done the exact same thing. Sure, rolling off the couch when Keith had knocked might’ve been a tad melodramatic, but he hadn’t wanted Keith to see him there.

And then Keith had said all that about not wanting to be an inconvenience to Lance, of all the wild notions, and that he’d bought a Blue Jackets jersey for Lance. It had been a good thing Lance was already on the floor – he would have fallen over when Hunk showed him what Keith had bought.

He probably could have continued thinking about Keith, but his extended family would be arriving soon so his mom quickly began marshalling everyone into action. Lance was assigned kitchen duty with Clara so the two of them started washing the dishes from breakfast. Then they had to clean the counters, scrub the sink and stove, and mop before taking out the trash.

When the house was finally deemed presentable, Lance put on his jersey and sat to watch the day’s sports and parades with his siblings before the rest of his family arrived. And once they did, his house was full to the brim and loud enough to make it difficult to think. It was amazing.

While he enjoyed the time with his family, Lance couldn’t help but think of Keith and how he was doing. Hunk liked to make fun of his crush, but Lance really did have it bad. He hoped that Keith was enjoying his time with his brother.

New Year’s Eve arrived and his family gathered for their tradition of playing games until midnight. The family favorite was Buckets, and Lance especially enjoyed the challenge of getting his teammates to guess what he was describing as his arms flailed.

With one minute left, the TV was turned on and drinks poured. They all gathered around the screen to watch the ball drop.

“Happy New Year!”

Everyone was hugging, and Lance held on to his mom for the longest.

“I just know that this will be an amazing year for you, mijo,” she told him softly, squeezing him tight.

As if to prove her immediately right, once they started dispersing to bed Lance saw that he had a text from Keith. And it wasn’t just a text – Lance opened it to see a picture too. It was of Keith and Pidge with someone who looked remarkably like Pidge and another guy who had his arm around Keith. Pidge and her maybe-twin were laughing, and Lance assumed the other guy was Keith’s brother. And Keith had his real smile on, cheeks dusted pink, and Lance knew that there was no hope left for him. He was gone.

 **Keith  
** >Happy New Year!

Val walked past and Lance grabbed her shoulder, struck with an idea. A selfie couldn’t go unreciprocated. “Val, want to take a picture with me to tell Keith Happy New Year?”

Her face lit up with a smile and she nodded. Lance held out his phone and took a quick picture of the two of them and said good night. He sent that to Keith and fell asleep with a contented smile on his face.

 **Lance  
** >Happy New Year, Keith!

When the new semester started up, Lance and Keith fell back into their pattern from before Thanksgiving. Lance would spend time with Keith in the library during his shifts and they talked. As it got closer to Valentine’s Day, Lance started debating whether they were close enough for him to make some sort of romantic gesture on the fourteenth. He was still wary of Pidge’s warning to take things slow, so he didn’t actually bring anything up until the day before. He had a couple plans that could be put into play with minimal prep, so he just needed to make sure Keith didn’t already have any plans for the weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's art is by [PookElucy](http://pookelucy.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Buckets is a game that my family plays whenever we get together. It's kind of like Taboo where you have to describe things to your team without using certain words - only in Buckets you write down the things yourselves and put them in a bucket. Each person gets 10 pieces of paper and writes down 10 things in a pre-decided category. We like to do actors / musicians or places as our category because we get a wide variety of things. Then the rounds begin - each person pulls a piece of paper and has to get their team to guess what's on it without using any of the words on the paper.
> 
> For example - the paper says 'Galaxy Garrison'. I can say that it's where the paladins studied before they left Earth, but I can't use either of the words 'Galaxy' or 'Garrison'.
> 
> Each round is a minute for the person to get as many papers as they can guessed by their team - you can pass if you want. After enough rounds, we generally call it a game and then work together as the whole family to try and guess the remaining ones because they're usually the ones that no one knew or couldn't describe.
> 
> The secret to the game is to write things that you know other people will be able get. One time we did a round of places and in that round my Papa (mom's dad) wrote down something that literally no one else knew. It was a golf course in Scotland - but not like St Andrews or any of the famous ones. We added a rule to our family games after that - 'No Obscure Scottish Golf Courses'. :D


	17. Birthdays

“So, any fun plans for tomorrow?” Lance asked Keith once they were both settled in the library.

Keith shrugged, barely sparing a glance at his phone when it buzzed. It was just Shiro’s ninth message – he still had thirteen to go. “It’s a Saturday, so probably just some running and then I have a paper to work on.”

Lance was watching Keith shrug off his minimal plans with a look of surprise. “Really? That’s all you’re doing?”

It was Keith’s turn to look at Lance in confusion. “Why do you ask? Should… should I have more to do?”

Lance threw his hands in the air as someone walked up needing Keith’s help so he had to look away for a moment. When he looked back, Lance’s hands were still up and his mouth was open. Keith merely raised an eyebrow.

“It’s Valentine’s Day!” Lance insisted. “Even if you don’t have a date you should at least eat chocolate! It’s in the spirit of the celebration!”

“Oh yeah,” Keith acknowledged with a shrug. Shiro was up to eleven now. “I didn’t even think that was a real thing for a while. Even now, I tend to forget about it.”

“How?” Lance seemed incredulous that such a feat could be managed. “Every store is pink and red from January through now, how do you manage to forget about Valentine’s Day?”

“Easy,” Keith replied, punctuated by a buzz from his phone. Twelve. “My birthday’s today so I tend to be a little more focused on that than Valentine’s Day. My birthday is a solid excuse to get a tattoo. Valentine’s Day is just another day.”

Lance slammed his palms down on the table. “You have a tattoo?” Keith barely had time to nod before Lance continued, louder and leaning closer. “And your birthday is _today_?” Keith just nodded again. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He kept up the act, but Keith thought he saw a small bit of hurt sneaking into Lance’s expression.

Keith looked down, he didn’t want Lance to get the wrong idea. “I just don’t like people making a big deal out of my birthday. So I don’t really tell anyone when it is and just let people figure it out, if they want to.”

Lance didn’t look hurt anymore, instead he looked contemplative so Keith returned to his homework. Shiro hadn’t sent a text in a few minutes, maybe he was actually trying to space them out. The silence from the other table implied that Lance was also working on school work, so Keith was left to his own thoughts. And, well, now that Lance had brought up Valentine’s Day Keith wouldn’t mind having something to do for the day. Namely something with Lance. Keith had been careful not to do anything that might guilt Lance into being his friend, and yet the man was still there and was still building friendship with him. Which started Keith hoping that maybe Lance liked him as something more than a friend, something more like how Keith liked Lance.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of Lance getting up, and when Keith looked up Lance had walked over to his chair.

“Hey man, I gotta go early today but I’ll see you around.” And, with a breath of hesitation, he leaned down and kissed Keith’s cheek. “Happy birthday, Keith.”

Keith could only watch as Lance practically sprinted out of the library. He felt himself smiling, and the feeling didn’t fade as someone cleared their throat to get his attention.

“You and your boyfriend are cute,” a girl said. Keith recognized her as a regular in the library. He didn’t want to explain that he and Lance weren’t dating, so he just nodded his thanks and helped her find a book she needed.

As he was leaving work, Keith got a text from Hunk.

 **Hunk**  
>Hey, Keith. I hear it’s your birthday – happy birthday, man!  
>I baked you cookies, just let me know when you’re home and I’ll walk them up to you.

 **Keith  
** >Thanks, Hunk. I’m walking back from work now, I can stop by that way you don’t have to walk them up.

 **Hunk  
** >It’s no big deal – if your arms are full or something I can bring them up.

Keith hadn’t ever had anyone bake him cookies for his birthday. Shiro and the Holts weren’t the baking types and preferred to buy cakes instead of trying to make them. Keith hadn’t stopped smiling since Lance kissed his cheek, but now he felt his smile grow. It was nice to have friends.

When Keith got to his apartment building, he stopped by Hunk’s apartment to accept cookies and a hug from the guy before he entered his own apartment to see Pidge sitting on his couch.

“Happy birthday, loser,” she greeted him. “Traditional birthday celebration?”

Keith nodded. “Traditional birthday celebration. Get the game ready.”

“Has Shiro hit twenty-two yet?” she asked as he dropped his bag and grabbed snacks from his kitchen.

“Almost. Just three more.”

“He does realize that sending one happy birthday text per year of age is going to get very unwieldy very quickly, yes?”

Keith shrugged, sitting next to her on the couch. “I tried to warn him. He insists. So I haven’t bothered to open his text thread yet today.”

Pidge laughed at that. “I’m almost done with the app that will send the texts to him for you,” she informed him as the game screen popped up. “Ugh, why do we still do this to ourselves?” she bemoaned, narrowing her eyes at the old graphics.

“Nostalgia?” Keith offered, unravelling the cord of his controller with only a small fight.

While they usually played Battlefront when they were together, the Traditional Birthday Celebration involved dusting off Keith’s old PS2 and doing some racing as Crash Bandicoot characters while gorging on snacks. This was the only game Keith and Shiro had for their game system when Shiro left for college, so when Keith moved in with the Holts Pidge had turned it into a birthday tradition to play it with Keith.

In direct contrast to Keith’s birthday, Lance made sure that his friends knew his own birthday was coming up for weeks in advance. Keith wasn’t sure what to get him, until the day he remembered Shiro’s Christmas gift. With that in mind, an idea formed. Lance’s birthday fell on a Saturday, so Hunk invited Keith over to have dinner at his place with him and Lance. Keith agreed, and filled Hunk in on his plan so that he would have a co-conspirator.

Dinner was amazing, but Hunk cooked it so there was no way it could be anything otherwise. Lance wanted to watch a movie, so he and Keith walked over to pick one out as Hunk gathered things (read as: stalled) in the kitchen. Lance and Keith sat on the floor in front of the TV to look through the movie choices.

“So, Lance,” Keith started, suddenly nervous. He thought it was a good idea, but would Lance think it was too sudden? Too forward? Not his thing? Keith steeled his resolve and barreled on. “I have a birthday present for you, but it’s not something that can be wrapped, really.”

Lance twisted so that he was facing Keith. “Well, you’ve piqued my curiosity. What is it?”

“So for Christmas Shiro gave me travel money so that I could take a friend on a vacation after the semester,” Keith explained, watching Lance’s face. He didn’t seem scared off so far, at least. “And I want you to be the friend to join me. Let’s go somewhere after graduation.”

Lance’s face split into a wide smile and Keith let out a relieved breath before the wind was knocked back out of him by Lance launching himself into Keith. “That would be amazing! This is the best gift ever – where are we going? What are we doing?”

Keith leaned slightly out but kept Lance close. “I haven’t planned any of that yet, so you can help. But there’s a second part to your gift.”

Lance looked so excited to hear about it that Keith felt some of his fears (that he had misread their interactions, that Lance didn’t care like that) wash away and he tangled one hand in Lance’s hair and pulled him forward for a kiss.

He could feel Lance’s surprise but that was quickly gone as Lance leaned in and deepened the kiss. Keith, aware that they were in Hunk’s apartment and not wanting to get on his friend’s bad side, kept it short and pulled back. Lance’s eyes opened slowly, and Keith smiled. “Happy birthday, Lance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith's apathy about Valentine's Day stems straight from my own experience. Including the tattoo comment.
> 
> My birthday is 13 February. I really don't care about the 14th, except that it means I'm closer to discounted candy and chocolate on the 15th :]


	18. Adventure

As awesome as Lance’s birthday was, it was remarkably unfair – how was he supposed to compare during any future holiday? But when he brought up his _valid_ concerns to Keith, the guy just laughed and told Lance that he didn’t celebrate any holidays in what Lance considered a normal fashion so Lance should be fine. And while his boyfriend – _his boyfriend, finally_ – had a point, that just made Lance want to make sure that every holiday for the rest of Keith’s life was the best ever.

Starting with spring break. They didn’t have the money to do anything wild or crazy, so Lance suggested that they go visit Shiro and Allura for the week. Keith was down, so the Friday that break started found Lance driving Keith again. Only this time they were holding hands on the center console. As he drove, Lance was telling Keith about the plans he had come up with for their post-graduation trip. He had done some research, and with the amount that Shiro had given Keith they could fly to Europe and still make a stop in Cuba on the way home. Lance hadn’t lived there long, but he hadn’t been back in ages and really wanted to go back with Keith.

The drive wasn’t too long, and as much as Lance had claimed to be calm he was actually very nervous about meeting Keith’s brother. This was the only family that Keith had – what if he didn’t like Lance? Keith had taken over driving halfway there, so Lance got to watch as they pulled up to a standard suburban house and then followed Keith inside. It was still cold outside, so they were shedding jackets when they were greeted by a remarkably beautiful couple.

The woman was tall and stunning, and Lance’s first instinct would have been to flirt with her had she not been hand-in-hand with a man who looked like Captain America with a highly advanced prosthetic arm. That man looked like he could kill Lance with his pinky finger, and Lance really didn’t want to die just yet. So instead he waited for Keith to introduce him.

“Hey, guys. This is Lance,” Keith said, dropping his bag to pull Lance forward. “Lance, this is my brother Shiro and his fiancé Allura.”

Lance smiled as widely as his nerves would allow and stuck out his hand to shake Shiro’s. Shiro reached out his prosthetic, which Lance found interesting – evidently he’d had it long enough to not be self-conscious about it anymore. Lance wondered what had happened, but he didn’t think that was a good way to make a first impression so instead he told Shiro that it was very nice to meet him and then did the same to Allura. They both smiled back, so Lance breathed a sigh of relief as he and Keith took their bags to Keith’s room.

When they walked back downstairs to ask about dinner, Shiro spoke first. “So, how do you like the guest bedroom, Lance?”

Lance froze, his face heating up as he wondered if he really would have to tell Keith’s brother that they were staying together. Thankfully, Keith groaned before he could stutter out a response and embarrass himself.

“Oh my god, Shiro – you don’t even have a guest bedroom. Be nice.”

“Lance, did Keith tell you about all the martial arts we did together as kids?” Lance still didn’t have a response – was this the start to the shovel talk? With Keith right there? – so he just watched as Keith punched Shiro in the arm and pulled Lance away.

“I hate you. We’re going to Bandana’s for dinner and only Allura is invited to join,” Keith said, pulling Lance over to where they had left their shoes. This was evidently Shiro’s favorite restaurant, however, so Keith eventually relented and let Shiro join them as well after Shiro promised not to threaten Lance while they were eating. Lance appreciated that, at least.

Dinner was delicious, and Lance thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Allura and Shiro as they all talked. Lance had ideas of what he wanted to do, and he got suggestions from them for items to add to his list. And then he dragged Keith into doing them all with him starting that very next day. The vast majority of his list was remarkably touristy, but Lance insisted and was rewarded with smiles from Keith when they did something that wasn’t against his lifestyle after all.

On the Thursday of break, they were all playing a video game together during the evening when Lance got up to refill his water. While he was standing at the fridge, a hand gripped his shoulder and he couldn’t help the jump that caused. Unfortunately, his violent flinch also spilled water so he grabbed a towel as he turned to Shiro.

“This is the shovel talk isn’t it? That’s what you were getting ready to start when we first got here,” Lance started rambling as he cleaned up the water from the floor.

Shiro shrugged, crossing his arms. “It could be. I just wanted to ask how long you’ve liked my brother.”

Lance was still holding the towel, but he couldn’t just put it down on the counter after hit was used on the floor so he straightened and turned to face Shiro while it was still in his hand. “Since the beginning of the school year, if I’m being honest.”

Shiro raised an eyebrow at that. “That long? Then why did it take so long for me to hear about you?”

Lance sighed, and he heard Keith and Allura bad-mouthing each other as they fought in the game. “Thanksgiving happened.” Shiro didn’t look confused, so Lance figured that he had heard at least something about what happened. “I was talking with my brother and he made a stupid comment that Keith overheard. I wanted to make sure that he was still ok with being my friend before, you know, anything more.”

Shiro nodded once, accepting Lance’s explanation. “So what’s next?”

Lance licked his lips. He hadn’t even told Keith about his recent revelations or plans, but he wasn’t going to be able to get out of telling Shiro so he just had to hope that Keith was focusing on the game. “Well, Keith has a job lined up so I’m going to see what I can find that’s near him. And, whenever he’s ready, I’m going to ask him to marry me,” Lance continued, looking Shiro in the eyes.

Shiro’s eyes widened at that, but he seemed to accept that and reached out his hand. Lance took it, and they shook. “I look forward to it, then,” Shiro said. “Just remember – I’m a black belt.”

Lance nodded, only slightly shakily. “I– I will.” After Shiro turned to return to the TV room, Lance remembered the towel in his hands so he had to do a small bit of exploring to find the laundry room.

“There you are,” Keith greeted Lance when he returned. “Where did you go?”

“I spilled some of the water,” Lance explained, leaning into Keith’s shoulder. “So I had to clean that up and then find the laundry room for the towel.”

“Well, your turn got skipped,” Keith informed him, gesturing to Shiro and Allura playing. Lance shrugged, he was content to snuggle instead.

After their tête-à-tête, Shiro’s demeanor to Lance changed enough that even Keith noticed. After they said their goodbyes and started the drive back to school, Keith brought it up as he drove.

“Did you talk to Shiro? He seemed to like you more at the end of the week.”

Lance grinned. “Yeah, we talked.”

“What about?”

Lance paused. He hadn’t wanted to just blurt it out, but they would need to start planning the trip soon and flights had to be booked. “Well, you’ve got your job all lined up and I don’t. But I’m going to move to where you are and look for jobs there so that we can be together still. Because, you know I love you.”

Keith didn’t turn to face Lance, but he did see Keith’s eyes dart over. They hadn’t said those words specifically yet, but Lance knew that they were true.

“Well, it wouldn’t make sense for us to have two separate apartments in the same city,” Keith responded with a thoughtful noise. “You might as well join my lease. Because, you know, I love you too.”

Lance wasn’t driving, so it wasn’t dangerous for him to stare at Keith. “You – you want to live together?”

Keith nodded. “It would be smarter,” he reasoned calmly, but Lance saw his neck slowly turning red. “Unless you don’t want to?”

“No, I do!” Lance promised quickly. “That would be great. If you’re sure that you love me.”

“I’m only offering if you’re sure that you love me.”

Lance beamed. “Then it’s a plan.” Keith’s own smile was radiant.

It had been a strange year, to be sure. But as Lance laced his fingers with Keith’s he couldn’t wait for even more adventures to come.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [Too Much is Never Enough by Florence + The Machine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD6sTDH9Zdc). I listened to the Songs from Final Fantasy XV album on repeat while writing this.
> 
> And that's not an exaggeration.
> 
> I has a [tumblr](http://ayrabelle.tumblr.com/).


End file.
